Jenny (00:28)
If you're unsure how to market your flower business and put yourself out there to get more business, even if you are an introvert and even if your business is brand new, then this episode is for you. I'm interviewing my six figure flower farming online business course student, Kate Guth of Archer and Bliss. And we are going to be talking about how Kate was able to book 29 weddings her first year in business, as if that wasn't crazy enough.
get published in a major floral magazine and become the preferred floral vendor for that major magazine all in her first year of business. Kate is the farmer florist behind Archer and Bliss Floral in Shawano, Wisconsin, and she has fields of flowers in a greenhouse. She's been a lifelong flower enthusiast, gardener, and
most importantly, a creative artist. She specializes in floral design and her designs are inspired by nature. She loves incorporating natural elements, a variety of textures and colors. And her vision is to shine light on locally grown flowers that she grows on her own farm and sources from other flower farms nearby and features all these blooms in her super unique floral arrangements. She's had years of experience creating colorful floral arrangements for all kinds of events.
and more. Kate's story is such an inspiration. I'm so excited for you to hear it and the amazing job that she's done taking what she learned through my online business course, Six Figure Flower Farming, and putting it into action and getting amazing results. So let's get right into it.
Jenny (02:06)
so Kate, thank you so much for coming out of the show. I am just so excited to talk with you because.
Well, for one, you have some serious floral design talent that I noticed right off the bat. You sent me pictures of your floral designs on Instagram, and they're some of the best I've ever seen. So I just think that you're so talented. So can you just say hello and tell us a little bit about you and your farm and what you do before we jump in?
Kate (02:26)
Thank you.
Yeah, so my name is Kate and I am the owner of Archer & Bliss Floral. I just started the business about a year ago. I had experience working as a florist and I had experience working on a flower farm and going through COVID and working through a florist, that was really tough. There were
floors that we couldn't get because they were coming in internationally and they're being held up in customs and having the experience of working on the floor farm, just thought to myself,
why don't more florists use locally grown flowers? There's some really cool things that we can grow and most of the time the quality is way better than what you would get from a traditional wholesaler and there's stuff that we can grow that you don't get at a wholesaler. So that's kind of where the whole idea for my business came from. I was like, okay, I'm gonna do this. I'm gonna start farming.
and I want to do weddings and special events with my flowers.
Jenny (03:46)
That's so cool. so, Key, I have to say, so you were in my class of six -figure flower farming, the online class, this past winter. And I have to say that you just made me feel so amazing, because right after taking the course, you messaged me and said that you felt like your potential was limitless and that you had already seen results from some of the things that you learned. And so I asked you what you had achieved, and you said you.
tried like the scarcity approach we talk about, and you booked a bunch of consults. And at that point you had already booked 14 weddings for the year. And then like a while later, you messaged me that you were getting featured in like major magazines. And so like, we're to talk about all this stuff today, but like you obviously have had amazing success and like get big results since taking the course and you've put in all this effort and put all the things you learned into action. And so.
That's so cool that you had some experience before that inspired you to start your flower farm business. Like I didn't realize that you had worked in floral when COVID was happening. So that's crazy. Very cool.
Kate (04:52)
Thank
Mm hmm. Yeah, it was, it was kind of one of those life changes that I had just at the time I changed my career and I kind of reached out to a friend and said, Hey, do you need help? I just needed a little bit of something to get me by. And I'm like, well, I'd love to work in a greenhouse. I always loved working with flowers and I had never done arranging before, but I was familiar with greenhouses and
It was just one of those happy accidents that happens where it's like, okay, this is what I was meant to do. So I kind of put all of my thought into it as I met my significant other, we were building a house and we had all of this land and I'm like, I'm gonna start farming. I kind of looked at him and be like, I hope you're okay with this because I know what I'm doing. And so I started.
building all of my fences and my fields and stuff like that and started incorporating some of my knowledge from previous careers of marketing and what I knew in floral design. But then the cherry on top was taking your course because I knew how to do some of this stuff, but I needed the backing of, how do I set goals or what do I do with my pricing? And that really helped me, like I said, feel limitless, that I really knew what I was doing after that.
Jenny (06:21)
my gosh, I love that so much. And I love that you said how confidently you said like, I, I'm going to do this. I know that this is what I meant to do and I'm just going to make it happen basically. And I think that's such a great mindset to have. so right before we hopped on to this call, we were kind of chatting about.
how your season had been going. And you were saying that you had been super busy. You had like triple wedding weekends. And so I want to hear more about how your season this year is going.
Kate (06:52)
girl. So I am a solo entrepreneur. I have people who will help me out from time to time, but all of the design work is done by me. I'll have people come help me if I have to do a setup, if I have something bigger, but I've been having some triple weekends and that can be...
I don't like to do more than one set up on a day. So that's my promise to my brides that I don't run from set up to set up like your day is your day. So I give that to you. So I have some weddings that are just smaller that want to do a pickup or I kind of meet them halfway. We're in a really rural community. So if
they're a hundred miles away, I'll meet them halfway and they can pick up their flowers if it's something simple. When people have arches or doing bud vases or anything a little bit more labor intensive, I always recommend that I do the setup for them just to give them peace of mind for the day. So I kind of limit myself on the number of those that I take because I only have so much time, but just amazing feedback that I've been receiving from the customer. that's always.
really nice.
Jenny (08:08)
Yeah, it's the best feeling in the world when you get happy customers that like tell you that, it makes all of the hard work and everything feel so much more worth it. So you're wearing all the hats right now, doing all the things. And so it sounds like you're only hiring like freelancers or helpers here and there just to kind of help you with set up and break down of those full service. And I love that you.
Kate (08:20)
Yeah.
Jenny (08:37)
said that you'll like meet people where they're at, where you're, where if they're like not super local, you'll do things to help them out. And I think that just, you obviously care and that goes such a long way with your customers to the point that they'll tell other people about you. Right. So you're treating.
Kate (08:53)
Mm hmm. Yeah, the referrals have just been crazy, more than what I expected. mean, being a marketing is my background. So I was, I know the framework of how to get it done. I guess I am just really blown away by the reception to what my business model was because I am more of a farmer florist than what I am a flower farmer.
Jenny (09:00)
awesome.
Mm
Mm -hmm. Mm -hmm.
Kate (09:24)
I love to do my own designs. I love doing weddings and special events. I know not every farmer likes to do that, but that's my jam. I find I love the hard, hard labor of working on the farm, busting it out, putting down some bio mulch, weeding, putting in the fence. But then I get to make like really pretty and creative stuff. Like I need to have that happy balance. So that's kind of where my business
model came in, but I started marketing myself more as it was join our sustainable flower movement. I love to talk about the fact we can grow some really cool flowers here in Wisconsin and a lot of people don't realize it. When I show people what a lisianthus is, it's like mind blown.
Jenny (10:10)
haha
Kate (10:10)
like what is that? I'm like that's my favorite flower and that's one of my specialties that I grow on the farm because I can use it in so many ways in my designs. Explaining to people you know do you know where your flowers traditionally come from? The roses, the carnations, if they're coming you know what they do in South America is fantastic. We can't we can't compare to that but we can substitute really beautiful flowers and kind of think of our
carbon footprint in the process by using local flowers.
Jenny (10:44)
I think that's one of the reasons why you have found so much success this year as it. So would you say that this is really like your first true year with Archer and Bliss or. Yeah.
Kate (10:55)
Yep. I started in, it was September of last year where I was, I had the conversation with my significant other and I'm like, I'm going to start buying perennials and getting them in the field. They need to get established. And I'm like, I'm going to start, I'm going to buy my plugs. I'm going to buy seeds. I'm like, I'm doing this. And that's, so I started and then, think it was late in the fall is when I invested in
wedding wire in the knot. I was, I'm always really about working smarter and not harder. And I'm like, okay, it's gonna be really hard for me to penetrate this market. do nobody, nobody knows who I am, work smarter, not harder. And I'm like, I will invest in it for this year to see how it goes. And it went really well. My name spread, people started to recognize me, people started to follow me on social media. So that definitely got got the job done. But
Jenny (11:25)
Mm
Yes.
Kate (11:52)
So far this year between bookings that I've done through wedding shows or on wedding wire and things like that, my goal was when I started in six -figure flower farming, I wanted to do 12. I'm like 12 weddings a year is gonna be good. I'll get my feet wet, I'll kind of get a process. I have 29 on the books for this year.
and I probably have that many already booked for 25.
Jenny (12:23)
my gosh, Kate, that is so amazing. That's so cool. So when you messaged me back in like, I don't even know, was like March right after we finished the course, you had already surpassed your goal. like, because I think you said you booked like 14 or something like that. So that is wild. And I think that another piece of this is,
Kate (12:26)
Hahaha
Yeah.
Jenny (12:48)
You are really good about telling your story and communicating your values. So you're, could tell you're really passionate about sustainable flowers and local flowers, and you are telling that story in like your own super special, unique way. And you're just attracting like all these people that totally resonate with that. And so you're really good at that. And I think that's amazing. And it's a huge part of why you've been so successful so far.
Kate (13:16)
thank you. like to remind people I identify as an introvert. Like, peopling, there's certain point where I just don't want to people anymore. I've hit my people quota. But being an introvert and being passionate about something makes me an extrovert. I want to talk to you all day about flowers, the things I'm doing with flowers, and
Jenny (13:25)
same.
Yes.
Kate (13:46)
when you can connect with people, whether that's people in your community, the local businesses, whether you're at a wedding show, you're at like a florist show, somewhere where you're showing off your goods that you farm, when you get to talk to people about what you're passionate about, they're going to connect with that message. It's not just a sales pitch. It's not just like, well, I have the same thing that everybody else does. No, like you can buy from me and this is the story.
Jenny (14:04)
Yes.
Kate (14:14)
This is the story behind it.
Jenny (14:17)
Yes, I resonate with that so much. And I also have never resonated someone more when you said that you are an introvert, but when you're talking about something you're passionate about, you become an extrovert. Cause I feel like I'm the same exact way. very like, I love people, but I'm so introverted and being around big groups of people and stuff. I just get exhausted. really need like my own time, quiet time, alone time. And when I talk to people about like,
business stuff and flower farming. Like you and I could probably talk for like three days straight, like about this kind of stuff, right? So I think it's so powerful and it's so natural to you, which makes selling honestly, somewhat easy when you're talking about things that you're passionate about. And when you come from it.
at a place of that, like you're serving and you're just helping people and you're educating them on things and teaching them about things you're passionate about. So it becomes like way less pressure and you're just doing what you love.
Kate (15:20)
Yeah, it's definitely, there are times where it's hard work. Obviously when you're working in the field and stuff like that. The other thing that I've learned through the years and especially was taught in your class was it's okay to say no. If I'm meeting with a customer and they want something specific and I'm...
Jenny (15:26)
yeah, of course.
Yes.
Kate (15:48)
not in love with it or I'm feeling like there's going to be difficulty with it, feeling that it's okay to say no. I feel like I've been really fortunate to have brides approach me who already understand my mission. So they're like, girl, do you? Like I've seen your work, like you just tell me what you think is going to look good and...
I'll go with it. Like they let me be the creative for their designs. So I feel like I'm really fortunate to that. But like saying no to like certain events that you don't think are going to be worthwhile or goals. This was something where I might be getting ahead of myself, but you know, doing six figure farming, setting up your SMART goals. And when I started, I had a whole list of SMART goals that I wanted to achieve.
And in a short amount of time, understanding my demographic, my key customers, things like that, some of those smart goals just didn't align. And that's okay. I don't have to do it just because I wrote it down on a piece of paper. doesn't resonate with the direction where my business is going now. So it's okay to say no. We don't have to do everything.
Jenny (16:55)
Mm -hmm.
Yes, I love that you brought that up because it is something that I personally struggle with a lot is saying no to things because me like so many other people suffer from shiny object syndrome and I have so many ideas and I want to do everything and it is so difficult sometimes to say no and focus on things. But then on the other side, like the flip side of saying no is respecting your work and your boundaries when
somebody comes to you and wants like a specific flower. Like I used to get this all the time, like I want ranunculus, but it's an August. And I'm like, well, that's not in season right now. And I know some people who would say yes to that. And then they would like jump through all these hoops and really struggle trying to find the right flower. And then when they get it in, it's the, you know, not great quality. And so your work suffers your like mental capacity is damaged because you're stressing about it.
And then your client doesn't get the amazing product they could have if you just said no and gave them the better alternative. Right? Yeah. And being flexible with how your business goes, because anyone who starts a business and has been in business for more than three or four years will tell you that.
Kate (18:14)
Yep.
Jenny (18:29)
You have to have a vision, but be flexible with it because like you said, you wrote down some goals, but then later on down the line, you found that they didn't align. It's totally okay to let those things go and just focus on what's working and where you want your business to go. And I, so I think that is so smart of you and really powerful to realize that you don't have to say yes to everything. So are you doing any other sales outlets besides the farmer forest thing right now? Are you doing like.
Kate (18:52)
Mm -hmm.
Jenny (18:59)
wholesale or anything like that.
Kate (19:02)
Yeah, so I had a whole bunch of list of goals that I wanted to do and one of them was meeting with so many florists in the area to do wholesale.
Jenny (19:16)
Mm
Kate (19:17)
So when I worked on the flower farm for growing season, the local flower farm that I was on, they had a delivery truck and they had a schedule where they would go out on Tuesdays and Wednesdays and they would do runs to different areas. And I'm still very close with that farmer and I bounce stuff off of her all the time, but
I would send, I'm sending out an availability list to these florists because I don't have the capacity to drive around to all of these florists and like knock on doors and show up with a bucket of flowers and be like, Hey, you want to buy something cool today? I just don't have that capacity. So, I have one wholesale customer that is just a doll. She owns a truck that has
space in the back, in the bed of the truck where she has bins for flowers. So she goes to special events and she does like build your own bouquet type of workshops and stuff like that. So I sell a lot of wholesale to her. She is cut from the same cloth, the same mission of using as much local flowers as she can within seasonality. And she just loves the different stuff that I pick and it's always different.
Jenny (20:15)
Mm
Kate (20:36)
for her to bring to events. So that's one outlet that I've had. I don't know if I'll ever really get deep into selling wholesale to florists, because I like to use my stuff in my arrangements too. And then I made a lot of connections. Again, introvert that turns into an extrovert, you make connections, you meet people, and then that kind of snowballs into different things happening. So...
Jenny (20:51)
Right.
Kate (21:05)
When I first started Archer and Bliss, I noticed that there was a space opening up in Shano that was going to be doing events. And I'm like, this is fantastic. I need to meet these people. Just wanted to introduce myself. Hey, I'm a florist. you, you know, they ever need anything for flowers, you know, here's a reference and I can help you. Well, that has blossomed into just a beautiful relationship where now I supply them flowers every other week.
I bring them a bouquet of my flowers and then they do flower Fridays. So every other Friday, I bring in five mini bouquets and they sell them in their boutique for people who want to maybe give them as gifts or they buy a little something for someone. So I'm doing that. And through that collaboration, we've been doing different workshops. This fall, we're coming up with one where I'm going to make a fall arrangement with some of the flowers that are grown on the farm.
We have three different women -owned businesses that are coming together just to collaborate and get our names out there. So there's a couple of different outlets, outlets that I didn't particularly think were gonna happen, but it's working really well.
Jenny (22:18)
So that's so cool and I love that you're just doing things that are working for you and you're just letting go of things that are not lining. So that's great.
So I want to talk to you about some of your marketing that you've done for your farmer florist business because
You got landed in a major wedding magazine and this is your first year really in business. And so you've told me the story. Can you tell everyone else about your whole marketing approach with your weddings, with like going to the shows and everything and how that landed you in this major magazine and got you a ton of publicity.
Kate (22:58)
Yeah, so part of my marketing approach when I first started through previous careers and different things I've done, I like networking, again, to a certain people quota. But when you're talking about something like we said that you're passionate about, it's easy to make connections with people. So I knew that going to shows was going to be
Jenny (23:12)
Yeah.
Kate (23:26)
the best way for me to get my name out there. And when I attend a show, doesn't matter what industry I'm in. If the traffic is slow with, say, brides that are coming through at a bridal show, I'm the first one to walk over to another vendor booth and be like, hey, I'm Kate. What's your name? And how long have you been in business? Tell me your jam. And I'm going to make connections.
No matter what I'm coming out of there with business connections or I'm coming out of there with customer connections So starting off I just told myself okay, I'm gonna do Four wedding shows in my first year and I made it a point to spread myself out within a hundred mile Radius of where I'm located. I did avoid some of the bigger premiere shows
because those are just inherently saturated with the traditional providers. So I was looking for like the little more boutiquey shows that, you know, might not be as huge, but would have just as much value. So I signed up for, I think I did five different shows and that helped me get super connected with both the vendors. So where we were at the shows,
you know, whether it was their wedding coordinator that was putting on the show or meeting photographers or meeting wedding planners. And through the course of these shows, there is a magazine called Premiere Bride that is promoted in our area. There's the Northeast and Central Wisconsin version, and then also Milwaukee and the publisher. She goes to all these shows. That's all, that's all she does all winter and spring and summer. She's at these shows with her magazine, kind of getting people interested in.
you know, what she has to offer in the magazine. And she saw me at all of these shows and she approached me and maybe show number four. And she's like, I just love your designs. Would you like to be featured in our next edition? I was like, heart -struck.
Jenny (25:40)
And so she had seen your designs at all these wedding shows you're going to, cause you bring like samples, right? Yep. So you actually have them there and she saw them in person, all the shows.
Kate (25:46)
Yep. Yep.
Yep. So what I did, you know, being, I wanted to push the sustainable mission and anybody else who's listening that wants to do the whole farmer florist thing. I, it's hard. It's hard when the shows are in the winter, you aren't growing, you aren't producing. So what I did is I, last year I kept a list of what I was planning on growing. And from that list, I would pull different flowers that I knew I could get from wholesalers.
but I could also tell the customers I will be growing this next year. These are flowers that are going to be featured in my farm. So they could start to wrap their brain around that idea. So each show I did a different type of design. I always had a demo bouquet. So for those of you that I've gone to wedding shows, they might have beautiful arches or things and a marketing technique is I always want to give them something to hold. And then I have a mirror in my booth. So
They get to stand in front of the mirror, hold the bouquet, and they get to see, you know, what style do they like? Is it too big? Is it too small? That's a common thing as a bridal consultant. Most people don't know. They're like, I don't know what style looks good on me. So she saw my styles changing, my color palettes changing, and she's like, boy, she's like, I just really like your designs. And she's like, I'll give you the opportunity to do all of the flowers for this.
for this shoot and I think it was in early April. Yes, was a big investment on my part to invest in all of the flowers and things like that, but it was a whole day, a magical day of just photo shooting and me like in happy tears, like, my God, my flowers. So yeah, they got featured both in the Northeast Wisconsin and the Milwaukee edition, so different pictures and I got to meet
Jenny (27:37)
You
Kate (27:48)
know, the beautiful models and the photographers that were there and just I'm continuing to keep my connections with them. And it's just, it was amazing opportunity. I never would have imagined it would have happened.
Jenny (28:05)
And it's all just from putting yourself out there, sharing your story and making connections with people. Right?
Jenny (28:16)
Hey, I'm interrupting this conversation really quick to ask you an important question. Do you love the growing part of flower farming, but find that selling is a real struggle? I get it. We didn't become flower farmers because we love sitting behind a desk, writing marketing copy, or crunching numbers all day. And yes, even me, your go-to business person, of course I would rather be out in the greenhouse than sitting on my computer doing quote unquote business tasks. But here's the thing.
The selling and marketing and the business side is what's going to make your flower farm successful. You could grow the most beautiful flowers in the world, but if you don't develop the skills to market and sell them, well, you won't be in business for long. So if you're like me and you'd much rather be out in the field getting your hands dirty, working in the sunshine and cutting bucket loads of flowers, but you know you gotta market and sell your flowers to make a profit.
but you're maybe just not sure what that looks like, how to do it, how to find the time, or where to even start, then listen up.
It's time to take your business to the next level. My online business course called Six Figure Flower Farming is launching the first week of January and to celebrate, I'm hosting a free flower marketing masterclass called What to Do When You Love Growing Flowers but Selling is a Struggle, Three Steps to Master Flower Farm Marketing Without Spending All Day on Social Media. This masterclass will cover how marketing and selling
doesn't have to feel sleazy or salesy, and how to make a genuine connection with your potential customers, how to actually find time to market and sell your flowers between all your farming to-dos, how to feel confident with what actually works for hyper local flower farm businesses, and how to get the most bang for your buck. And you can learn how to do.
all of this without spending all day on social media, wondering how the hell to get more customers or feeling scared or afraid of selling and putting yourself out there. So this free masterclass training is for you if you're tired of wasting time on social media marketing that doesn't work, you feel like you have zero time for marketing and selling yourself and you want a clear path to easily sell your flowers.
Plus, if you show up to this live training, you'll get a free bonus, my favorite business book list that has a list of the books that literally changed my life. But you only get that bonus if you show up live to the masterclass training. You can sign up for this free masterclass by heading to www.trademarkfarmer.com forward slash masterclass. I'll put a link in the show notes of this episode so you can just click it and head over to sign up. All you gotta do is stick your name, email in there and you'll be in.
So go to trademarkfarmer.com forward slash masterclass or click the link in the show notes of this episode. Now back to our regularly scheduled conversation.
Jenny (31:10)
And it's all just from putting yourself out there, sharing your story and making connections with people. Right?
Yeah. I love that. And so now that you've been featured in this major wedding magazine, you've gotten tons of publicity from it. Did you say you're also like a preferred vendor for them too, as well because of that?
Kate (31:32)
Yep. Yep. So I am a preferred vendor. So what that means is I have my own little section on their website, under their florist services, and I can submit my brides or my wedding stories to them to be featured on their blog, which is really cool. So I have a couple of some of my first weddings that I did were, were just absolutely amazing and I I'm getting them featured. So it's
Jenny (31:52)
So cool.
Kate (32:01)
It's a lot of... It makes me want to cry. It's just... It's a happy dream come true.
Jenny (32:09)
that's so awesome. I just, I love that so much. And you know, then you also have all the images and the pictures to use for your portfolio. And then as you build that portfolio, you're just going to keep on attracting customers that you want to work with to you. And it's just like a happy little cycle that keeps on going, which is so cool.
Kate (32:30)
Yeah, yeah, it is. I'm always thankful when I can get pictures from brides. I get the photographer, we get the release, and then they share the images. And it's just really cool to show off like, hey, look at, look at the cool local flowers and what you can what you can do with that stuff.
Jenny (32:50)
Yeah, I love that. So something I want to come back to that you like sneakily just talked about for a second, but we need to come back to you is that at your wedding shows, you have bridal bouquets for people to stand in front of a mirror and just like check it out. That is literally genius because if I were getting married and I went to one of these shows and I met you and you were like, well, let's like, see what you like, see what you like, hold this and like practice, see what.
Kate (32:56)
you
Jenny (33:20)
You know, guess who I am immediately going to book? It's going to be you. I'm not going to go try to find somebody else because you're the person who helped me and you showed me all these cool things and you taught me something. so I have actually like, maybe that's a thing in the forestry world, but I've never heard of anybody else doing that before.
Kate (33:40)
Yeah, it's, I'm just fortunate to have the experience to work at like a brick and mortar florist shop and through all of the consultations that we would do and the one thing that kept on popping up in my mind, you know, you ask a bride, you know, how big do you want your bouquet? What kind of style? And most people have never held a bouquet. They don't know.
Jenny (33:48)
Mm
Kate (34:03)
what shape or style they like. They might have been cruising Pinterest and they've seen some pictures, but they don't know specifically what they'll like. And I always wanted, again, marketing is like if you get somebody to hold something or touch, it's a sensation. They're going to connect with it a little bit more. So from this, you can say,
Jenny (34:09)
Mm
Mm -hmm.
Kate (34:26)
this looks like about the right style. This is more of an organic style bouquet. We have a couple of different variations in stem length, and this has a little bit of a cascade. So it's going to cover your hands. It's that an education piece also with the marketing, you're sharing a little bit of your knowledge with them. You're not just being like, well, do you want flowers or not? So they're like, I mean, I love sharing information with people and the mirror.
idea, the first show that I went to, I'm like, okay, I'm gonna do this. I bought like an easel and I put a mirror up on it and I would get people, I would say, do you want to try on the bouquet? And people would kind of look around like, what do you mean? And I had it in this big, beautiful vase and I would pull it up and I kind of wipe off the stems and hand it to them and be like, okay, now you can see your reflection in the mirror. Tell me what you think. And it is like, I worked in bridal too.
when you're dressing a bride and she's trying on dresses, you know, she doesn't know what she likes until she sees herself in the mirror with it on. The same thing goes with the bridal bouquet.
Jenny (35:35)
That's just genius and I love it. And you are so smart to do that. So that's awesome. What a great experience for your customers to have like an initial experience with you. So that's so awesome. So clearly you are made to do this because you have some past experience in a lot of these things, but this whole business is brand new to you and it's just like exploding and it's sounds like it's been.
Kate (35:52)
Hahaha
Jenny (36:03)
A lot of work, but very amazing. And I want to come back to this past winter when you were kind of making all of your plans and everything for the upcoming year, because in Six Figure Flower Farming, the online course, we kind of like take you through basically like the planning process of like planning your business, what you want to focus on planning, like doing it.
your crop plan, finding out what's profitable for you, doing the marketing and the sales piece. And I'm just curious what you think the biggest things were that helped you from taking that class or maybe anything else that comes to mind.
Kate (36:39)
Well, deciding to invest in six figure flower farming was, it was very monumental for me. Like I'm, I had no money like starting off. obviously I have nothing that I'm sitting on as far as profit. So I'm like, okay, I need to invest in this for myself. The rabbit hole that I think a lot of people find themselves in is,
We have access to so much information readily at our fingertips right now. Snap, click. And is it all correct though? So I wanted to invest with somebody who is going to be able to teach me like in modules, in sections, okay, this is how you write your mission statement. Here's your business plan. What's, you know, what's your budget going to be profitability, you know, the
the flowers that you're gonna grow marketing, kind of breaking it down into sections was really nice to have that. And some of the goals that going into the training that I really wanted to learn was I have an understanding of SMART goals. Writing a SMART goal down and then putting it in a drawer is one thing versus writing down a SMART goal and then looking at it.
Jenny (37:58)
you
Kate (38:00)
consistently on a month by month basis and be like, okay, how am I doing with this? That's different. And I felt like taking the course gave me lot of accountability to keep up. I invested in this for me, so I need to put in the work to do it.
Jenny (38:19)
Yeah, that is something that I think is so important when you have that accountability piece, because like you could go peruse blogs and read books all day long. But when you have a structure to like keep you on track and to actually like sit down and do the work, like I assigned everyone homework, like you did all the homework and I am like not afraid to tell people like there's homework. You have to like.
actually sit down and do the work if you want to get results and you want these things to happen. And so we like really sit down and just kind of like make you do it. And so I think it's like one of my favorite parts about, about it, because I actually get to see people like put pen to paper and make these plans and put, you know, the, the actual concepts into action.
And so it's great hearing from you that that was a really helpful aspect of the course.
Kate (39:16)
I kept a whole notebook during the course and you provided all these nice PDFs and print offs, but I'm kind of a person that retains information by writing it down. And so I had notebooks that I was going through and after each class I would kind of answer the questions and kind of work through it myself. So I had multiple notebooks that I kept and I still refer back to when I just have
Jenny (39:29)
Mm
Kate (39:44)
you know, questions like, I on track? Like, what can I be doing? That's, that's a little bit differently. And I think experiencing like having other people in six figure flower farming, whether they had been farming already for 20, 30 years and just wanted to take their business finally to the next level, or people like me who are just starting off that are like, I don't know where to start. It was just, it was really nice learning from
Jenny (40:08)
Hahaha!
Kate (40:13)
other people in the industry and understanding that just because it works on your farm doesn't mean it's going to work on on my farm. So there is this whole first year for me. I've been calling it my experimental year like in quotation marks and I am okay with that. I am okay with having failures but I need to learn from them. Did I screw up on this? Sure did. Am I going to beat myself up? No but
Jenny (40:41)
You
Kate (40:42)
I'm going to remember for next year and I'm going to write it down. I keep a journal. I'm just going to make sure that, you know, it doesn't happen again. Did I overburden myself with starting too many seeds at one time? Did I lose some because I, you know, underwatered? Sure. Will I change it for next year? Absolutely.
Jenny (41:02)
Yes. And learning from your, you have a system in place to learn from your mistakes. So you keep improving year after year after year. And I think that's so important. I know a lot of flower farmers get sort of like bogged down. get like burnt out in the middle of the season or the end of the season. And they're like just praying for frost to come. And they just want to like forget about the following year and just like move on.
but they end up repeating a lot of the same mistakes again. But when you like carefully keep track of that stuff, it makes such a huge difference. And so I think you're super smart to do that. So do you think that that has been like a major thing that's going to help you improve some of your systems and stuff moving on? are there other things that you think are really moving the needle for you right now, as far as like achieving your future goals with Archer and Bliss?
Kate (41:58)
Yeah, it's definitely, I'm kind of an SOP nut. if I can, there's any type of a manual that needs to be written on how to do like X, Y or Z, like I'm probably the first one who's going to jump at the opportunity to do it and then be the one to modify it because nothing is ever perfect 100 % of the time. So I was really diligent in writing down like when I seated certain things, when I put them in the ground,
Jenny (42:03)
Nice.
Kate (42:28)
when they started to bloom because that was all all new to me. I had some plugs that I brought in this year and so there are things that I'm like okay I could do this by seed I don't necessarily need to do it by plug maybe I'll experiment a little bit with this but expanding my offering for the different flowers that I'm featuring for my customers especially the weddings and special events I'm gonna be looking
you know, now forward to my 2025 brides and seeing, okay, what do I need to put in the field that's gonna be specifically for them or what they're requesting. So it's kind of fun to do that. I get to go shopping and find the seeds that I think will be great for the farm, but I also have customers that want certain things that I'm growing.
Jenny (43:22)
Awesome. so Kate, I just want to ask you one more thing. And that is if there's anything else that you can think of that you'd want to share with someone who maybe wants a business like yours, like is kind of waffling about their flower farm or their forest business. And they want to do flower farming or forestry, but they're not really sure like how to get there or what steps to take.
To get there, what would you give them?
Kate (43:55)
I would just say to, to believe in yourself, you know, you need to believe in yourself and, and figure out what your mission is and why you're starting your farm or your business. You're going to provide value to your customers, no matter how big or small you are. And I'm the first one to say I'm not a typical flower farmer or a florist. You know, I.
Do stuff that's different, that makes my business stand out. Is it gonna work for everyone? No. But I knew deep down with my experience of working as a florist and working on a flower farm, I wanted to merge the two. So figure out what you're really passionate about and really deep down believe in it. And again, it's okay to say no to things that don't really resonate to you. There are people who do flower stands. There are people who do CSAs. It works for them.
not it might not be your jam it might not work for you just kind of figure out where you want to spend your time and your creativity and what that means to you.
Jenny (45:05)
Yes. There's so many options out there. have like limitless options, but I agree just getting really clear on what you want to do and the direction you want to go is really, really a key piece to these things. Right. Awesome. Well, Kay, I can't believe that you have booked pretty much 30 weddings. Your first year in business got featured in.
Kate (45:21)
Mm -hmm.
Jenny (45:32)
Premiere bride, major magazine, got a ton of publicity. Now you're featured for us for them. And you have done so much incredible work with spreading your story and your mission about really using sustainable flowers and local flowers. And I just think that everything you're doing is amazing and you are so incredibly talented. And it's been super fun to meet you in the course last winter and see everything that you've done and everything that you've grown and where you're going, where you're heading. And so.
Thank you so much for meeting with me and catching up with me on the show. I really appreciate it because I just love seeing other people's success and the fact that you're living a life on purpose, like you're doing what you really want to do. think that's so important. Life is just like way too short to do something that you don't want to do. So can you tell everyone that's listening, where to find you, where they can learn more about what you do, like your Instagram or your website?
Kate (46:21)
Mm
Yeah, so my website is archertheletternbliss .com and you can find me on Facebook. I am on Instagram as well, so that should be at archertheletternblissfloral. I love to feature different things I'm doing for customers, the flowers that are coming from the fields, fun stuff. So just believe in yourself. You can do it too.
Jenny (46:56)
Yeah. Thank you, Kate, for saying that. Like nobody is a special snowflake. None of us are special or have like any unfair advantages or anything like that. We're just normal people who are following our passions and just, yeah, exactly. So thanks Kate so much for being here. We'll see everyone on the next episode of the Six Figure Flower Farming Podcast.
Jenny (47:19)
One last thing, don't forget to sign up for the free masterclass training happening the first week of January. It's called what to do when you love the growing part, but selling is a struggle. Three steps to master flower farm marketing without spending all day on social media. Sign up now at trademarkfarmer.com forward slash masterclass, or by clicking the link in this episode show notes. And you probably already know this, but I struggled so hard with marketing my business when I first started.
which is why I'm doing this free training because I want you to have the tools you need to thrive. So go to trademarkfarmer.com forward slash masterclass or click the link in this episode show notes. And I really hope I see you there.
