Transcript
Jennifer Gulizia: Hey, flower friends, welcome back to the Backyard Bouquet podcast, where we explore the beauty, challenges, and lessons that come from growing flowers and building a life that blooms with purpose.
Jennifer Gulizia: I'm your host, Jennifer Galizia of The Flowering Farmhouse, and today's conversation is such a treat. Today, I'm joined by Lyndsay Biehl of Wild Root Flower Co. and Shannon Allen from Bloom Hill Farm, two powerhouse farmers who and the voices behind the Dirt on Flowers podcast.
Jennifer Gulizia: Both of these women have built incredible flower businesses from the ground up. And what I love most is how honest they are about the real side of farming, the grit, the growth, and the moments that test your resilience.
Jennifer Gulizia: In this episode, we're talking about the lessons they've learned in the field, how they've grown through the tough seasons, and what inspired their brand new event, DirtCon, created to bring flower farmers together.
Jennifer Gulizia: Before we jump in, if you're enjoying these conversations, please take a moment to follow or subscribe to the podcast so you don't miss any of our weekly episodes filled with stories and inspiration to help you grow in your garden and beyond.
Jennifer Gulizia: All right, let's get into today's episode with Lyndsay and Shannon. Hi, ladies.
Shannon Allen: Hello.
Lynds: i
Shannon Allen: oh
Jennifer Gulizia: Thanks for joining me.
Shannon Allen: What an intro. Oh my gosh, that was so sweet.
Lynds: i know.
Shannon Allen: Yeah.
Jennifer Gulizia: Well, you guys have a lot to offer, so it's so fun to have you here.
Shannon Allen: Yeah.
Jennifer Gulizia: I mean, we've got three podcasters here, so
Shannon Allen: Yeah.
Lynds: and know. You know what you mean business when everybody shows up and like with a mic and headphones on, you know, you're good.
Shannon Allen: yeah
Lynds: Yeah.
Jennifer Gulizia: Totally. It's been a while since I've had two guests at once. So this is going to be fun. And hopefully we can keep this concise as I ask you both questions because there's a lot to cover.
Shannon Allen: Mm-hmm.
Jennifer Gulizia: So let's go back to the very beginning. I think that most of my listeners are probably familiar with you, but we do have a lot of backyard gardeners besides flower farmers that also listen to the podcast.
Jennifer Gulizia: So could each of you give me like a one to two minute introduction of who you are and what you do?
Lynds: Yeah. So I'm Lyndsay and I have Wild Root Flower Company. I am in Southeast Ohio. So the very, I say I'm in Appalachia. So I'm kind of in the hills of Southeast Ohio.
Lynds: I have, I've had, this is my ninth season with Wild Root and I have a background in horticulture. I started, in the, in the industry at 16 and I'm going to be turning 43 very soon.
Lynds: so I've kind of been in this flower world for, for many, for many, many years. Love it very much. So, started Wild Root just as a transition from the landscape world. So I worked for arboretums and did sort of the public gardening sector, have a lot of background in perennials, woodies and that sort of stuff. And so I transitioned to farming about 10 years ago. Yeah.
Jennifer Gulizia: Awesome. Thank you.
Lynds: yeah
Jennifer Gulizia: And what about you, Shannon?
Shannon Allen: Yeah. I'm Shannon at Bloom Hill Farm. So we're in Uniontown, Ohio, which is like Northeast Ohio. We have a larger farm, you know, for flower farms. So we're like in the 20, we grow around 20 acres or so.
Shannon Allen: We have a large wholesale business and this is our ninth year. So Lyndsay and I, our farms have kind of grown from baby farms to what they are today alongside each other, which has been kind of a fun thing for us. But I farm with my husband, Judd. So you'll hear me refer to him every once in a while.
Shannon Allen: Him and I are kind of the dynamic duo here that have grown the farm just from basically what we could handle when we had little kids, you know, at a fourth of an acre, to what it is now. So, I had zero background in farming, not one other than just growing things that I loved.
Shannon Allen: and then, so we're, my husband and both are first generation farmers learned by the old school of hard knocks, made a lot of mistakes and kept, uh, pushing forward and,
Shannon Allen: growing and the things that my customers loved. And now I get to be here and get get to educate other farmers, which is super fun. And that's kind of part, Lyndsay and I have always bonded together over the hard things that come with farming. And now we kind of get to share, commiserate, inspire, you know, on the podcast, which is pretty fun.
Jennifer Gulizia: I love that a friend shared a proverb with me this last week. And hopefully I don't butcher it. My friend, Danny, she has the most amazing cookie business in town called Danny's Kitchen.
Jennifer Gulizia: She hosted a local mastermind and she opened it up with this proverb this last week. And it said, alone, you can go fast, but together you can go far. And I was just kind of thinking about the two of you, like nine years, lot of farms don't make it to nine years.
Lynds: Yeah. Yeah.
Shannon Allen: me Yeah.
Jennifer Gulizia: And so how cool that you guys have gone super far together.
Lynds: yeah
Shannon Allen: Yeah.
Lynds: Yeah, we there wrote a lot of early years that we we always talk about it, but we would sit in our cars, you know, we would drive home from our nine to fives and we would sit and talk and we were kind of scaling at kind of the same place.
Shannon Allen: Well,
Shannon Allen: Mm-hmm.
Lynds: And so we were just encouraging each other, you know, it'd be like, okay, if you can do this, I can do this. And, you know, trying, you know, what what worked and what didn't. So it's it's been amazing. Really fun to take that and then transition it into the podcast because I feel like we really can relate to a lot of people that are growing from a hobby.
Lynds: grow They're just growing just growing flowers in their backyard and their vegetable garden to people that are doing it to make a living at it. so
Jennifer Gulizia: That's awesome. Okay, so you're both in Ohio.
Shannon Allen: Mm-hmm.
Lynds: Yes.
Shannon Allen: Ohio Gals.
Jennifer Gulizia: Did you know each other in real life before starting your farms?
Shannon Allen: No.
Lynds: No. No.
Shannon Allen: No.
Jennifer Gulizia: How did
Shannon Allen: Well, there used to be, which they keep asking us to revive it, but we just do not have enough time, energy. But there used to be an Ohio flower farmers group and we would have meetups.
Shannon Allen: What did say, Lyndsay Like once a year, maybe?
Lynds: Once a year. Yeah.
Shannon Allen: Yeah. And they would have speakers come in. And when we were baby farms, like in our first year, we attended one at Leo Burby, think it was at Leo Burby Ball Company.
Jennifer Gulizia: hu
Shannon Allen: at Leo Burby, yes, at Ball Company.
Lynds: yeah
Shannon Allen: And we met there and then just kind of kept in contact over the years here or there. But and we started realizing like we had a lot of parallels in our business. You know, we were kind of like doing the same things at the same time. So it's kind of grew as it, we grew together, you know, in a lot of ways. So it just kind of, it grew from that point.
Lynds: yeah
Jennifer Gulizia: That's awesome. So how far away are you from each other?
Lynds: We're about just under two hours.
Jennifer Gulizia: Okay, so have you been to each other's farms?
Lynds: who Oh yeah.
Shannon Allen: Oh, yeah. Yeah.
Lynds: Yeah. Many times. yes we Yeah. she's in a very She's in a very populated big area. She has, i mean, she really has millions of people access around within probably 45 minutes.
Shannon Allen: a
Lynds: I don't know what you're in a lot.
Shannon Allen: Yeah. I don't even know. Yeah.
Lynds: I mean, she's close to Cleveland.
Shannon Allen: Akron, like Canton, Cleveland. Yeah.
Lynds: Yeah. She's not far.
Shannon Allen: yeah
Lynds: And so where I am, I really am, way we joke and say I'm in Appalachia, but I really am. I'm in a very small town, small community. And so our you know our reach within 45 minutes is maybe 35,000, 40,000.
Jennifer Gulizia: no
Shannon Allen: Mm-hmm.
Lynds: And I think the other thing too that's really cool is that Shannon and i have We're very, we're similar, but very different businesses that were kind of going in different directions where Shannon really wanted to kind of scale.
Lynds: And she's doing like, they do thousands of bouquets every single week to grocery stores. And to me, that's really like, that isn't the direction that I have taken. partially because of my, my market, I really, i really can't, I don't have access to kind of all of that.
Lynds: and so that's been one thing that's really appealing, I think to even our listeners, in, you know, our insider group, there our membership group, where they can kind of ask any question and you're we're hitting it sort of on both ends of the spectrum.
Shannon Allen: Mm hmm.
Lynds: So it's kind of nice.
Jennifer Gulizia: That's awesome. I love that you brought up the point about location too, because like we have a new 20 acre farm and we had a customer picking up their bouquets this weekend and they said, well, you've got all, we yeah were growing on an acre this year.
Shannon Allen: o
Jennifer Gulizia: And they said, well, why aren't you using all of this space?
Lynds: Mm-hmm.
Jennifer Gulizia: And i was like, well, we have to build the market first. It's a lot of work.
Shannon Allen: Yeah.
Lynds: Cause I want a life.
Shannon Allen: You can grow a crap ton of flowers. You can grow a crap ton of flowers on one acre.
Lynds: Yeah.
Shannon Allen: I mean, truly. like we
Jennifer Gulizia: So many.
Shannon Allen: we see other flat We see other farms you know who come to us and talk. I mean, they're doing so much. Joanna Webb is one of our speakers at Durk. She does... she does like flipping of beds, like making that use of small, I mean, it's like an art form to do that.
Lynds: who
Shannon Allen: But that's like a unique thing about flowers is that you can earn a high amount of, a fairly large amount of money in the farming world from a pretty small space.
Jennifer Gulizia: Yeah.
Shannon Allen: I mean, that's the cool thing about it. So it can be whatever you want it to be and need it to be, but When when we because there's like other bigger farms around us, too, you know, and they hear, oh, 20 acres.
Shannon Allen: like Oh, that ain't nothing. do you know how much work it goes in?
Jennifer Gulizia: yeah
Lynds: Yeah.
Shannon Allen: it We've been one acre, you know, so it's just a different a completely different scale than like soybeans, corn and all the regular stuff.
Lynds: Yeah. And they even, we had somebody come to our farm this spring and, she had been to Shannon's and when she came, we, we, farm we actually have in production like around three acres.
Jennifer Gulizia: Totally. Uh-huh.
Jennifer Gulizia: okay
Lynds: And so when she came to the farm, she she said like how much smaller it really was. And she's like, no offense. And I'm like, it's intentional. I mean, I don't, you know, we, I scale back on production and and try to make things more efficient.
Lynds: Kind of like Jenny, you know, Jenny Marks talks about always like being the most efficient you can.
Lynds: And that's, that's the direction I've came, I've, I've gone to not to say Shannon's not efficient. That's not at all what I'm saying. She has to have what she does to produce what she does. But You know, there's, it's, it's just like creating that business to be whatever it is that works for you, I guess. so yeah, but.
Jennifer Gulizia: Totally. Well, and depending on what you're surrounded with can make such a difference too. Because like our last growing space was surrounded by a residential neighborhood and I was growing on an acre there. And everyone was like, this is so massive.
Jennifer Gulizia: But now that there's like this huge open space around it, everyone's like, that's an acre.
Shannon Allen: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
Jennifer Gulizia: It doesn't look like very much.
Lynds: Yeah.
Jennifer Gulizia: And you're like, it's a lot.
Lynds: It's lot.
Jennifer Gulizia: So I love that you both have taken very different paths. Lyndsay you've been in horticulture since you were 16, and Shannon, you said you started with zero experience.
Shannon Allen: here
Jennifer Gulizia: How do you think your early experiences with starting a flower farm have shaped the evolution of your business today?
Jennifer Gulizia: Who wants to go first?
Shannon Allen: Well, I mean, yeah. I mean, for me, I'm like, oh my gosh, those early years were so traumatic.
Jennifer Gulizia: Did you start on your same field?
Shannon Allen: They were like, yes. So when we purchased our home, we had three kids. I literally kids. brought my third child home from the hospital, and everybody was three and under.
Shannon Allen: So I everyone in diapers, and we were starting the farm that following year.
Jennifer Gulizia: Oh, wow.
Shannon Allen: So we just had two acres, you know, and we're like, well, it's conventionally farmed. Like, but maybe we could do something, you know. So they're like, okay, we saw that. There's a farm near us, well, about two hours away in Columbus, Sunny Meadows. If you're in fire farming, you've heard of Stephen Gretel.
Shannon Allen: We like consulted with them. We're like, wow, like, okay, this could be something. We didn't know what it was. we't know what we were doing, you know? So those first years were like so, I hate saying traumatic, but I mean, they were a little It's like so much learning and growth and like, you know, obviously like the mirror that entrepreneurship is for you is can be brutal, you know, like you're just like figuring it out and you have kids who are young and you're trying to do your best and you want it to grow And so I think it really pushed me to be tough, you know, and figure figure out like what are my customers asking for and doing more of that and only those things, you know. So I'm like, okay, they're asking for more Lysianthus. How do I get more Lysianthus? So like every year we just grew it, listened, grew it, you know, had all the – I feel like –
Shannon Allen: There is no easy button. I think like that, if that could be Lyndsay and I's goal in all of this is just for people to get into it, knowing that it's not going to be easy. Like, and no matter what career you get into, entrepreneurship is hard.
Shannon Allen: and that Whatever you're doing, it's it not just flower farming, but it's there is no easy button.
Jennifer Gulizia: Yeah.
Shannon Allen: But if you can learn to embrace those early years and like know that you're going to make mistakes and learn from those mistakes, and that's what Lyndsay and always try and do like, it's okay. like every mistake is like a piece of data for you moving forward.
Lynds: Mm-hmm.
Shannon Allen: Now we try to be what we wish we had. You know, we always say that we wish we had us, you know, when we were in year one to three, just to like have some reassurance that these things are normal and they're going to be okay.
Jennifer Gulizia: yeah
Shannon Allen: And, and, And I think just learning that grit, you know we didn't have us. So we like had to do it ourselves. We had to figure our way, white knuckle through it.
Shannon Allen: And I think from those mistakes, like you just learn to be better and having that attitude. Like Lyndsay and I both have that, you know, we're like every year we need to be better. You know, every mistake makes us better. And I feel like that has why we've been successful over time. But, you know, that's Lyndsay i' goal I's goals. Like how do we teach grit? Like how do we teach that that just animalistic like push.
Lynds: Mm-hmm. Pick yourself back up.
Shannon Allen: Yes. So that's kind of our goal.
Lynds: Yeah. Yeah.
Shannon Allen: And it comes from like, you know, a lot of mistakes in the beginning.
Lynds: yeah
Jennifer Gulizia: I think our mistakes are our best teachers.
Shannon Allen: Oh, yeah.
Lynds: For sure. Yeah, they are for sure.
Shannon Allen: Mm hmm.
Lynds: i think for me, i coming into farming with a horticulture background, i had this insane pressure on myself because i have a bachelor's degree from Ohio State in horticulture. I surely can grow stuff. And I found the challenges just as Shannon's talking about. I was stepping into...
Lynds: agriculture in a very different way that I had previously. So I had all of this pressure on myself to know exactly how to farm. And it's a really different concept you know when you're farming for production versus just having a you know a backyard garden. And it is very different. So it took me a few years to, one, take the pressure off of myself, but just to kind of echo what Shannon said, that it's a being an entrepreneur is a really good mirror. And that's the thing I think that shaped me still that I carry that theme now is that I really am self-reflective of like how I show up by my business. How can I learn?
Lynds: and how can I just, you know, create more balance for myself? There's it's just always constantly evolving as a business owner. and I think, you know, learning those early years where I was super hard on myself makes me a better business owner now because I'm, I'm a lot more, I'm a lot, I give myself more grace now than I did. So.
Jennifer Gulizia: That's so important. You both talked about like the first early years being really difficult and having to have a lot of grit. I bet there were times that you wanted to just give up.
Jennifer Gulizia: What was the moment when you realized that this is the moment or sorry, this is what I'm meant to be doing? Like, was there a specific moment that you realized like this is hard, but this is also what I'm supposed to be doing?
Lynds: Mm-hmm.
Shannon Allen: yeah, I'm trying to think if there was like one moment, I think, you know, when you're first starting out, you, you have like zero confidence. i mean, we see this, we see this all time. We have like no confidence. And there was a time in our first year when, we didn't know what we were doing and, and we had a market that was kind of knocking at our door. Like, Hey, we really, really like you guys to come. And we like, we don't know if we,
Shannon Allen: We're going to have flowers. Like I said, like we didn't know. We said no. And then it's like universe whispers, you know, that come to you sometimes. And so like a week before the market, we realized, okay, we're going to have like this huge flush of sunflowers.
Shannon Allen: So we called them like, if you're still taking somebody, you know, we'll come, you know, we'll come sell our sunflowers. We were so scared. I mean, can't even, this is like the most scared I've ever been in my life. And I literally had three children under three. but Okay.
Shannon Allen: And we went there and like, I mean, the line for our flowers, the positive words, encouragement, people like loving it, the stories, the customer interactions. I mean, that was like the day we're like, okay, like this can be something.
Shannon Allen: You know, we have a niche at the time. mean nine years ago, like nobody was really doing it. There was a few people doing it that are like the trailblazers that we know now, you know, but it wasn't really a thing.
Jennifer Gulizia: Thank you.
Shannon Allen: And I think that was, for me, my personality. I needed that external piece of someone being like, wow, this is so cool.
Lynds: yeah
Shannon Allen: And sometimes you're just working by yourself, you know feeling like you don't know what that you're doing, only seeing the mistakes. It's hard to see that. And I think I, me personally, like I'm energized by that external piece. like People saying, oh my gosh, I love what you're doing. Or i love I need that to keep filling my cup. That's why we do You Pick. That's why we do Retail. So we can have those kind of cup filling conversations.
Shannon Allen: So for me, that was like the moment I'm like, okay, Shannon, you know, get your big girl pants on. Like we need to to sit down and have a plan and like do this for real.
Lynds: Yeah.
Shannon Allen: Like no more just throwing seeds in the ground and wishing that whatever comes up, comes up, you know? So I'm pretty tough, you know, we can be pretty tough on ourselves. So me, I'm always just at that point, I was like, you need to do this for real and then start getting serious about it.
Jennifer Gulizia: I love that.
Lynds: yeah
Jennifer Gulizia: I love the the reminder that we do need that outside reinforcement because it you see your customers get those flowers and their expressions.
Shannon Allen: Yeah.
Shannon Allen: Yep.
Jennifer Gulizia: it's It's such a joy to be able to share those flowers.
Shannon Allen: Nothing like it.
Jennifer Gulizia: Yeah.
Shannon Allen: Mm hmm.
Lynds: Yeah. Yeah. yeah
Jennifer Gulizia: What about you, Lyndsay
Lynds: Yeah. I think my, you know, I kind of always, I always knew like from the time I was 16, that this is what I wanted to do. So there really wasn't this, but I never found my place within the industry. And so when I kind of into farming, I had a couple of similar situations, just exactly like Shannon.
Lynds: We had a, we had a downtown market and we sold like a hundred bouquets in 30 minutes.
Shannon Allen: Mm-hmm.
Lynds: And it was like, I went back crying, you know, like, why are these, what, it why why, why are they buying these flowers?
Jennifer Gulizia: Wow.
Lynds: you know i couldn't understand it but it was that it is that motivation to to figure it out when we sold out our design and dine, you know, tickets the first, the first year. And, uh, you know, that's, it was 20 tickets, but I'm, I couldn't believe that people were handing over $150 a ticket and I was brand new, you know? So it, I've, what I love about owning a business is that I love idea generation is like my thing. I love coming up with new ideas and running with them. And,
Lynds: And so this is like satisfied that horticulture itch. And then also this like, you know, and and I love helping people too. So the workshops and even what we're doing with the podcast, it just kind of has satisfied it all in a way that I never really was able to find in those early years of my career. So, yeah.
Jennifer Gulizia: I love that. Thank you. I feel like we're sticking around a lot on these early seasons, but I kind of love this because I think most listeners know you at least in the present. So hopefully we're pulling some tidbits out from the past here today.
Shannon Allen: Yeah.
Lynds: Mm-hmm.
Shannon Allen: Yeah.
Jennifer Gulizia: When you look back on those first few seasons, is there one thing that you wish someone would have told you when you were getting started?
Shannon Allen: Oh, I mean, we're pretty stubborn.
Lynds: I don't know if I would have listened. And I think I might have heard it.
Shannon Allen: and
Lynds: i know.
Shannon Allen: Yeah.
Jennifer Gulizia: yeah
Lynds: I wish i I, in some ways, because I am that idea person, i tend to like, I would do a lot of ideas and I wouldn't drop anything.
Lynds: And so i you don't have to do everything. You can be really good at one thing. You know, it's like Charlotte Smith talks about that, right? Like the one, doing the one thing, simplifying.
Jennifer Gulizia: Julie.
Lynds: Jenny talks about that. and I, in, in now the phase in my life that I am going into 10 years into my business, I am moving in more of that direction. So I think there is this need, this feeling to say yes to everything and everyone when you're new. Cause I was, I was running flowers on my, between my nine to five And, you know, running flowers to a bank for somebody that would a $20 bouquet.
Lynds: And you were, you know, just – there was so much hustling that went into that where i don't think I had to say yes to everything, you know, weddings and all this stuff. And now I'm at a place in my business that I feel like I don't have to do all of that.
Lynds: And I think I could have started out that way. Like I said, I don't know that I would have actually listened to it, but it is really solid advice. But, yeah.
Shannon Allen: Yeah.
Lynds: Yeah.
Shannon Allen: Yeah. You know, I'm like thinking about this and I think, you know, for now, and it's the it's funny that the things that we wish we would have had, like we're always instructing other people now that we're nine years into this, but something that I've learned that I wish somebody would have told me was that I don't have to grow the fancy stuff to have a good farm.
Shannon Allen: It's like one, mean, like I look at my bouquets and stuff now and like 80% are easy to grow stuff, like cheap to grow, easy to grow, fuss stuff. And then sometimes like the magic in my bouquets, like the cuteness in my bouquets does come from the fancy stuff, like the Lizzie, the Dahlias and like all that. Those are absolutely necessary in my mind. But when you get started,
Shannon Allen: I just feel like, oh, you just like you're like starting Bells of Ireland from seed and like the scab.
Lynds: Scabiosa? Why did I ever grow scabiosa? Like, I don't know. Thank you. Stuff gets tangled to harvest.
Shannon Allen: But eat
Lynds: Yeah.
Shannon Allen: the seed catalogs like draw you in. And like when you're just getting started, it is that like it's that dream nature of it.
Jennifer Gulizia: Totally.
Lynds: yeah
Jennifer Gulizia: Right.
Shannon Allen: And I wish someone would have said like, no, no, no, Shannon, you need to concentrate on growing 80 to 90% just the tough stuff. Because my customers, they want their flowers to last a long time.
Shannon Allen: So when they get that experience, they're like, oh, yeah, I need more, i need more, i need more.
Jennifer Gulizia: right
Shannon Allen: And I think that's kind of what sets us apart. But it's really easy to get sucked into that at the beginning. It's like growing all the fancy dancy, finicky, fussy, you know, tangly things that are super cute but not essential to success.
Jennifer Gulizia: Absolutely. Those are both really good pieces of it pieces of advice. Lyndsay you and I are in similar sized towns. And when I started out, I kind of felt like I had to do it all because I was in a small town.
Shannon Allen: Yeah.
Jennifer Gulizia: I was like, I can't niche down to one thing because the market's not big enough to support one thing.
Lynds: Yeah.
Jennifer Gulizia: And now it's like, don't have to do all of these things because that kills myself.
Lynds: Yeah.
Shannon Allen: yeah
Jennifer Gulizia: And you can see, oh, you just because you're in a small town doesn't mean you can't niche down. I don't know if you ever had that similar experience or not.
Lynds: Oh, yes, absolutely. I mean, and then when you start looking at it, you've got, you know, it's still, when you look at the pie as a whole, it's little pieces, you know, slivers here and there. and I'm like, okay, if I cut that little piece of the pie out, I can grow that other piece that's doing really well.
Lynds: And that's what, like, I actually feel super excited even for next season because I'm even relieving more I'm even relieving more stuff off of my plate. So I feel really, i feel excited and energized about, about that and being able to be in that place in my business and have the confidence as a business owner to recognize that and not feel like I have to, I can say no and I don't have to serve everybody. So.
Shannon Allen: Yeah.
Jennifer Gulizia: I like that. You don't have to serve everybody. That's a good good reminder sometimes it feels like you have to in a small town.
Lynds: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
Jennifer Gulizia: you want oh Especially if you're a people pleaser, like, I want everyone to be happy. And so, yeah.
Shannon Allen: Sure.
Lynds: Yep. yep
Shannon Allen: Yeah.
Jennifer Gulizia: And Shannon, that reminder about like that 80% of the flowers. I mean, I remember my first season I planted, because I'm i'm a dahlia person. Like I've loved dahlias my whole life.
Shannon Allen: yeah
Jennifer Gulizia: So I planted mostly dahlias. And then by the end of the season, it's like, crap, what am I going to put with filler? And then you end up like over stuffing your bouquet because you don't have that other stuff.
Shannon Allen: yeah Yeah. Yep.
Jennifer Gulizia: So I think that's a a good reminder that like you can never have enough of those other flowers.
Shannon Allen: Yep.
Shannon Allen: Yeah. No, no shame in the Celosia marigold Gomphrina game, you know, Dianthus, I'm to think, Amaranth, like all these super easy stuff.
Jennifer Gulizia: no
Shannon Allen: I mean, it it makes the fancy stuff shine where they don't shine by themselves all the time.
Jennifer Gulizia: Absolutely.
Jennifer Gulizia: Yeah, exactly. Well, yeah, if you get a whole bunch of dahlias bunched in together, they kind of just smoosh with each other.
Shannon Allen: Yeah.
Jennifer Gulizia: And then it's like, what am I paying for?
Shannon Allen: yeah
Lynds: Yep.
Lynds: Yeah.
Jennifer Gulizia: Okay, let's see here. We've talked a lot about your early years. I don't think we've actually clarified. What is your business model?
Jennifer Gulizia: You each have very different business models. So who do you serve with your farm?
Lynds: You go, Shan.
Shannon Allen: Okay. So we do, we're a large, I would say like half of our business is grocery or wholesale. So we do a large, two large grocery chains in like the Northeast Ohio area.
Jennifer Gulizia: okay
Shannon Allen: And we do like around 2,500 bouquets or so a week for the for those chains. Yeah. those chains And then I also have like we have a small retail farm stand.
Jennifer Gulizia: wow
Shannon Allen: We do you pick. We do like we're doing like three to four festival events a year doing you pick. And we have a CSA. that's pretty much for us. So over the last couple of years, like just because we're already in the Akron, Cleveland, Canton doing grocery deliveries.
Shannon Allen: We are also doing florist deliveries now, too. So mostly just event florist, not retail florist. So we have somebody that kind of manages that now, too.
Lynds: Mm-hmm.
Jennifer Gulizia: Okay. And what about the size of your team? It's not just you and your husband, is it?
Shannon Allen: No, definitely not. I have my Rachel. If you listen to the podcast, I'm always referring to Rachel. She's like my admin. She's like my other half in a farm in a farm way. And so she her and I run kind of the farm the logistics of the day-to-day farm vendor, customer management, and all that together.
Shannon Allen: My husband runs the like field op track tractor work. And then we have eight, eight H2A employees that come up seasonally from Mexico to help us out. And then two seasonal delivery drivers.
Shannon Allen: So we have, there's quite a team that kind of makes all of this happen, but also allows me to do these things and not be cutting every single flower as the farm has grown over time.
Jennifer Gulizia: Thank you for sharing that piece because I think sometimes people go, well, am I supposed to manage all of this by myself?
Shannon Allen: Mm-hmm.
Shannon Allen: Oh, heck no.
Lynds: No.
Lynds: So yeah, so my farm, we do, we have a you pick that was open on Saturdays this year, which is one of the things that's going to actually change for us next year.
Jennifer Gulizia: What about you, Lyndsay
Lynds: we run a CSA subscription and we, we have a really great flower stand that is open 11 months out of the year. And we sell at farmer's market. So we are mostly like a retail retail focus as our customer. We have a few wholesale outlets, but you know nothing that really it eats up much of our business. Workshops are a really big piece of what we do. So they're about the...
Lynds: the The biggest three pieces of my pie, which are about 30% of my business, just I guess under 30%, I was looking at it last night, Christmas, we do a big Christmas business, my flower stand, and my workshop piece.
Lynds: So those like those, if I had to say like that's what I do, that's the biggest piece of my pie. And so for my employee side of it, I have, for the field side, I have four part-time employees that sort of make up you know, it's essentially like two full-time employees. That's kind of how we, you know, this the schedule shakes out.
Lynds: And then i have someone that helps me on the admin side a couple, you know, 20 hours a month. And then i have somebody that also does some of the retail positions. So run some of those you picks and things like that.
Lynds: So six part-time, some are more part-time than others, you know, 22 hours, 20 to 30 hours a week or something like that. But, but yeah, that's kind of my breakdown.
Jennifer Gulizia: Thank you for sharing that. You just mentioned 11 months the year you're open.
Lynds: Yeah.
Jennifer Gulizia: Do you grow and flowers 11 months the year?
Lynds: So we have the way our, the zone that I'm in, I'm in six, I'm in six B. And so we force tulips for Valentine's day. So we, uh, the only month we're closed is January.
Jennifer Gulizia: Okay.
Lynds: And so we will open for Valentine's day. And then, our greenhouse, uh, tulips typically start in March. So we'll force tulips up and through, you know, up till March until our stuff, our outdoor stuff starts in our greenhouse and our high tunnels.
Lynds: So then we're selling there. And then, we roll all the way through Dahlia seasons, which takes us through like mid end October. November's pretty quiet month in the beginning. So there's like, uh, the end of October through mid November, and then we transitioned to Christmas stuff. So, we transitioned to Christmas, after about mid November. So yeah, it's, it's a pretty, it's a happen in place, the stand.
Jennifer Gulizia: What do you do for Christmas flowers?
Lynds: So we don't grow flowers. We actually do Christmas wreaths. So we do, yeah, we do Christmas wreaths, centerpieces.
Jennifer Gulizia: Oh, okay.
Lynds: oh my gosh. all all kinds of All kinds of fun stuff. Swags. and our In our shop, we sell ornaments. There's just all kinds of Christmas-related things that we sell. So that that so pretty much takes us through, it's it's a fast and furious six weeks, but we run a lot of A lot of Christmas greens through here.
Lynds: Shannon does as well too. But yeah, it's a pretty, I've done that one I'd started actually before I've had the farm. So that was a really easy transition for us. And it's been, it's just great because it also keeps people thinking about the farm in the winter, you know?
Lynds: So it's really just like a month where they're kind of not, and then we're kind of swooping back in around Valentine's day.
Jennifer Gulizia: Totally.
Lynds: So
Jennifer Gulizia: Okay. So do you both grow and harvest greens from your own property or do you bring in greenery that time of year?
Jennifer Gulizia: Okay.
Lynds: we'll get a lot of like, uh, Northwest greenery and then some Southern greens mixed in. Now we do harvest. Shannon has like a tree farm that's kind of close to her, but we, we do forage.
Lynds: We say, I say forage, you know, like pine and some other things, boxwood stuff locally if we have it, but to really get the bulk of what we do, we buy, we buy most of that stuff in.
Lynds: So, yeah.
Jennifer Gulizia: Okay, that's awesome that you're able to keep your customers coming pretty much year round like that.
Lynds: Yeah.
Jennifer Gulizia: Did i hear correctly on one of your recent podcast episodes that you were both toying with not doing tulips next year? Or are you still doing some?
Lynds: Some.
Shannon Allen: minimal ish well we we both pretty much cut our orders in half ish would you say linds yeah yeah just for next year
Lynds: Yeah. Yeah, we both did.
Jennifer Gulizia: Yeah.
Lynds: Just to see how it is.
Jennifer Gulizia: hopefully
Shannon Allen: Yeah. Mm-hmm.
Lynds: You know, it's not a one for one. So that is something that we're we're looking with to to kind of reduce waste and cut back. So.
Shannon Allen: Yeah. And also on the tulip piece, it's Lyndsay I just encouraging people to be looking at their real numbers with these things. So if you're like a hobby grower and you want to become, you know, a you want to start making money, like you do have to dive into the unpretty side of farming.
Shannon Allen: And for us, you know, that's really looking at those costs. And for me this next year, it meant not selling to one of our biggest grocers because I just cannot come at the bulb price.
Shannon Allen: Like it doesn't make sense for us next year.
Lynds: Mm-hmm.
Shannon Allen: Like not to say that that won't change because it's so hard because we had a great year this year with it. But, you know, year to year, those things change and it's okay. Like farming gives you a clean slate each year to make those decisions year to year.
Shannon Allen: And I find like a lot of freedom in that. But sometimes as farmers, we do things because we think we should, but not because we're really looking at the numbers. And so that was that the main That is a really great episode. If you're somebody who's really thinking through tulips or any kind of expensive or risky crop, you know, it's it is good to to look at those things. And Lyndsay and I are are just always encouraging ourselves and then, you know, practicing what we preach too on that and making those changes when we when we see fit.
Jennifer Gulizia: That was a great episode. Do you happen to know offhand what number that is? If not, we can link it in the show notes.
Shannon Allen: You know, yeah, yeah, we can look it up.
Lynds: Yeah, I can link it in the, move one second here.
Jennifer Gulizia: Yeah.
Shannon Allen: Yeah. And it's just, it's not from like, it's not political. We got so many questions like, thank you for not making it political. And that was our number one goal. Like it is not political. it is just a business decision from year to year as, as the cost of crops rise and fall in.
Jennifer Gulizia: Totally.
Shannon Allen: Lyndsay and I have been having this tulip conversation lately. for like the last two years between each other as the bulbs have like slowly crept up and the risk too, you know, with tulips like too short, not usable, you know, tulip diseases. Lyndsay's had all kinds of problems over the last two years, some in the field, some in the tunnel. It's just, they're not a guarantee, but the hardest thing is that they come at a time when your customers just are ready for flowers, you know?
Jennifer Gulizia: Totally.
Shannon Allen: So that's the hard thing. that' That's what makes it hard to say no. That's like the love affair with tulips, Truly. And so just, you know, encouraging people to make those business decisions.
Lynds: Yeah.
Lynds: Yeah. That was episode 209.
Jennifer Gulizia: i love that conference. 209. Perfect.
Shannon Allen: Yes.
Lynds: Episode 209, Tulip Deep Dive. Yep.
Jennifer Gulizia: Just encouraging people to know their numbers though. Like, I think that was the big message in your episode.
Shannon Allen: Yeah.
Jennifer Gulizia: And I think that was so good because even I was like, okay, do I really need tulips next year? And like, course I do, but yeah, exactly.
Shannon Allen: Yeah. What is it truly costing you? Yeah, truly. Yes.
Jennifer Gulizia: That kind of leads me right into my next section here is that you guys have both built very successful and thriving farms, but you're also incredibly honest about the not so pretty parts like analyzing those numbers.
Jennifer Gulizia: How do you keep the authenticity when everything online is pushing us to perfection?
Shannon Allen: Yeah. Mm-hmm.
Lynds: We actually, we just had this conversation.
Shannon Allen: yeah
Lynds: I was, and we can maybe answer it in two parts, but like with the podcast, Shannon and I are just, I think that is why people have resonated with us is because we really are just like authentic and honest about sort of blowing the pixie dust out of the way with flower farming because,
Shannon Allen: view
Lynds: Oftentimes, I think too, oftentimes the fantasy is sold. The fantasy is sold to people. The easy button is like, there's there's a, this is the thing. This is the one course. This is the one anything that's going to make it a hundred percent. and even with like what we have coming up that we're going to talk about. But it's like, we, this is a piece of the pie. We've always tried to encourage from the farming aspect to just be really honest about what our struggles are.
Lynds: You know, our uncuts are, we say they're unfiltered and it really is. You hear us from week to week or progression of the season what we're struggling with, what worked, what didn't, what do we want to change?
Lynds: And so, you know, for me, i I want to show up. i went If you are my customer, if you take it from the podcast to my farm, if you're my customer and you show up for a UPIC or you come for a workshop,
Lynds: I want you to get the same person that shows up on social media as that you have in front of you. You know, i so being honest and kind of sharing the struggles but specifically about tulips.
Lynds: I mean, i lost, gosh, how many, 15, 17,000 tulips or something.
Shannon Allen: Oh my gosh, yeah.
Jennifer Gulizia: Oh my gosh.
Lynds: It was a ton. Yeah. and we call it to I called it Tulip Gate, but it was a really great opportunity for my customer, my CSA customer, for it not just the farming community, but just people in agro, you know, to learn about small scale farming and what that is. And so, you know, I had advice from people that were like, eh, just like brush it under the rug. Don't say anything about it I was like, well, that's really not how I roll.
Lynds: And so I, you know, I shared it. It was a learning opportunity. for my customer as well as other farmers too. And so I think that, you know, perfect's boring.
Lynds: I mean, that's like, that's what everybody's feeds are. Sure. You've got people have hundreds of thousands of followers and these really pretty like curated feeds and they're beautiful to look at. but that isn't, that isn't real, real life.
Lynds: And we still do present the pretty, you know, we still do keep it beautiful.
Jennifer Gulizia: Yeah.
Lynds: If you look at our Instagram feeds, we're not showing all of that stuff, but, but yeah, I don't know.
Shannon Allen: now
Jennifer Gulizia: Your homepage on your website, though, even has your dirty hand.
Lynds: and I don't know.
Jennifer Gulizia: I love it. I was, remember yesterday or two days ago, I was like shaking hands.
Lynds: Yeah.
Jennifer Gulizia: I'm like, oh my gosh, I am so embarrassed that people are seeing my hands right Totally.
Lynds: Yeah. We, We, um,
Jennifer Gulizia: Totally.
Shannon Allen: Although sometimes they things. they They think that and then they come out and they're like, oh, okay, this is something different, you know.
Lynds: Mm-hmm.
Shannon Allen: But i it does like people want to feel a common bond. And it's good to present the pretty and we do that. We really do. And it's in our safer spots is where we're the most vulnerable.
Shannon Allen: On the podcast where we have, you know, listeners who good, bad, and ugly get to hear it all. And also from like our customers and our email newsletters that we get to connect with. And I think at the end of the day, it's like people want to root for you. They want to come along in the journey and bringing them along. Like that's part of the customer journey, the process to get people to fall in love with your farm and want to drive a little bit further to come to you as opposed to going to – I don't, the grocery store and getting like the 599 sunflowers. Why are they coming to pay $20 at my farm?
Shannon Allen: Well, because they want to root for me, you know? And so we've kind of create those relationships and it comes with presenting the good, the good and the bad, not all bad. i mean, there's like, there's a limit, you know, would say, you know, so, it's just, you know,
Lynds: Mm-hmm.
Jennifer Gulizia: Right.
Shannon Allen: peppering in that you're real people with real struggles and this is, and farming is full of ups and downs and everybody, it's an education piece for the customers too. So I think bringing them along is a really important part.
Jennifer Gulizia: Absolutely. One thing that I've learned over the years is someone once told me, you don't share your wounds because it sounds like you're asking for pity. But if you share from your scars, you're sharing wisdom and advice.
Shannon Allen: o
Jennifer Gulizia: And so I've really had to learn because like when we first lost our growing space, it was like I shared about it, but it was still so raw that I hadn't really had time to process it.
Shannon Allen: Yeah.
Shannon Allen: Yeah.
Jennifer Gulizia: But I have continued to share my story. And like when we opened up our farm stand at our new farm for the first time this year, I was blown away by how many people came out and they're like, we've been following your story. Like, we're so excited that you have new land where you can put down permanent roots. And I wanted to be the first person to support you. I mean,
Jennifer Gulizia: My first bouquet I sold this season was to a vegetable farmer who was like, she lined up and she's like, I want to make sure that you know that your farming community supports you.
Shannon Allen: Oh.
Lynds: That's awesome.
Jennifer Gulizia: And I was like, how cool is that?
Shannon Allen: Oh yeah.
Jennifer Gulizia: like
Lynds: awesome.
Jennifer Gulizia: Because I have shared those wounds. And like you said, people were rooting. They they don't want to see you fail. They want to see you be successful.
Shannon Allen: Yeah.
Lynds: Mm-hmm.
Jennifer Gulizia: Yeah.
Shannon Allen: Yeah.
Lynds: Yeah.
Shannon Allen: Yeah.
Lynds: And there's a limit. There's a, like, it becomes a point where you're like, all right, Debra, like that's enough of the, you know, wine and, but you're not doing that. You're sharing from a real experience.
Shannon Allen: yeah
Lynds: You know, if you're on there every week sharing your woes, it would be a different, it'd be a different vibe on that social page.
Jennifer Gulizia: Right.
Lynds: But, you know, I think you're doing it from a really honest place. And I think that's really cool to see people show up for you like that. So.
Shannon Allen: Yeah.
Jennifer Gulizia: Yeah.
Shannon Allen: Inspiration, not desperation.
Jennifer Gulizia: Yeah.
Jennifer Gulizia: Oh, I like that.
Shannon Allen: Yeah.
Jennifer Gulizia: That's a good way to look at it. Yeah.
Shannon Allen: Yeah.
Jennifer Gulizia: You want to inspire people because it's kind of like you talk about with the grid. It's like, okay, everything is figureoutable.
Shannon Allen: Yeah. Mm-hmm.
Jennifer Gulizia: Like you don't have to know how you're going to scale from one fourth acre to 18 acres right away.
Shannon Allen: Mm-hmm.
Jennifer Gulizia: but I bet you took that first step, which leads me into my next question is, how did you scale from one fourth of an acre to 18 acres, Shannon?
Shannon Allen: Mm-hmm.
Jennifer Gulizia: Or 20? Sorry, your website said 18, but you said 20. So...
Shannon Allen: Yeah.
Jennifer Gulizia: so
Shannon Allen: Well, it's not fast. It's something that grows over time. So, you know, you grow what you think you can and you're like, okay, like i see opportunity. i think I think that's the heart.
Shannon Allen: That's the Enneagram. Lyndsay and I are both Enneagram 3. What are you, Jen? What's your Enneagram?
Jennifer Gulizia: I need to take the test.
Lynds: Oh.
Shannon Allen: What?
Jennifer Gulizia: I don't know.
Lynds: oh
Shannon Allen: okay, well, Lyndsay got, Lyndsay made me take it. Cause I was like, don't really want to, but now once you understand, it's actually a cool way to understand people, but, it's the three, you know, in and Lyndsay and I both were like, Oh, when we see an opportunity, it's like hard to pass it. so i'm like,
Shannon Allen: okay, people, I'm still saying no to people. And so I got into this routine, you know, like probably five years ago or so where i every time I said no to somebody, I wrote it down in and a note on my phone because I hate saying no more than anything. I'm like, hey, I could do, i could grow more of this. I could grow more of that. I want to say yes to opportunities.
Shannon Allen: So every year, me personally, like I always grew more than I knew that I could sell because like I want to be able, but I want to be a position where go out and hustle and sell more not say no.
Shannon Allen: So really just over time, it's just from that mindset, just growing a little bit by little, adding a little bit more, adding extra revenue streams to be able to sell the flowers, thinking, you know, how could my customers have a better experience, which is how we added the other and a farm down the road we purchased two years ago that we can have bigger events with more better parking. It was like a complete Crab show at our at our home farm.
Shannon Allen: So better parking, better experiences, other revenue streams for the farm, because think you get to the point, too, where it's like, I don't want to grow more flowers. So how am I going to increase my revenue?
Shannon Allen: And it's doing the things that we're doing better. Okay. And then adding other complimentary things.
Lynds: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
Shannon Allen: So like with that came the Airbnb and then with that, you know, came making the events a little bit bigger and adding vendors. So it just kind of grew from there a little bit as a time at a time as I saw opportunities.
Shannon Allen: But I think, you know, really i just always put put myself in a yes position. i want opportunities. to say yes. And that's like just my personality. So every year I'm growing a little bit more than I know I have capacity for. And with the goal that i I always want to be out there, out there saying yes and being open to new opportunities and not ever kind of being a point where i'm just like,
Shannon Allen: I'm going to say no because I can't or don't want to. I want to be able to do things I want to do. So that's how I guess it's kind of grown over time. But it's not fast and it's not without a lot of heartache and hard times and mistakes and learning and redoing and a lot of help and soul searching and thinking it through and winter business planning sessions and all those things.
Lynds: Mm-hmm.
Jennifer Gulizia: Yeah.
Shannon Allen: You know, that's all part of it. But that's a kind that's what lights me up about the business. Like I love that side of the business. So I always like doing that.
Lynds: She always talks about, phil she we talked about on a podcast earlier this year. She's talking about her goal for the year was to find gaps and she wanted to fill the gaps.
Shannon Allen: hello
Lynds: And I said my goal for the year was to find a gap and take a nap. So we're in different parts of our business where was like we, I love her energy and her, in and so I'm just in a different, I'm in a different phase of my life now where I just got, I got married later in life.
Jennifer Gulizia: I love it.
Shannon Allen: Yeah.
Lynds: I got married, I've only been married for a year. And, And so now I'm just sort of like I'm transitioning to finding those spaces and creating it. Like not that I still I'm like on fire about my business.
Lynds: I still love things about my business.
Shannon Allen: Yeah.
Lynds: I mean, I there's it's not that I'm giving up on it. It's just a different um's I'm just in a different space with it.
Shannon Allen: Yeah.
Lynds: But yeah, there the whole she was talking about finding a gap.
Shannon Allen: feel like I'm taken out.
Lynds: And I was like, yeah, I'm going to fill it.
Shannon Allen: I forgot about that.
Lynds: and I'm taking a nap. Yeah. She was talking about it again.
Jennifer Gulizia: yeah
Lynds: I was like, oh, yeah, I feel tired just listening to you. Yeah.
Jennifer Gulizia: Shannon, have you read the book, The Year of Yes by Shonda Rhimes?
Shannon Allen: Oh, my gosh.
Lynds: three book recommendations.
Jennifer Gulizia: I feel like you would like that one.
Shannon Allen: yeah Okay. Okay. The year of yes.
Jennifer Gulizia: Yeah.
Shannon Allen: I need to do more reading.
Jennifer Gulizia: By Shonda Rhimes.
Shannon Allen: Okay.
Jennifer Gulizia: She said yes to everything that came her way for a year.
Shannon Allen: Got it. Oh, and how'd that go?
Lynds: Oh my gosh.
Shannon Allen: Don't ruin it.
Jennifer Gulizia: Amazing for her.
Shannon Allen: Nevermind. Okay.
Jennifer Gulizia: Yeah.
Shannon Allen: Okay.
Jennifer Gulizia: Well, I mean, look at, look Shonda Rhimes success.
Shannon Allen: Okay. True.
Jennifer Gulizia: So yeah, it's,
Shannon Allen: Yeah. Yeah. i Yeah, it's it's it's it's so hard because it is important to like be efficient in the things that we do and sell the things that we grow. one hundred Yes, absolutely. I agree with that.
Shannon Allen: But every year I just like I really do like pushing myself. I like I see flower farming i just because I more enjoy I enjoy this side.
Lynds: Mm-hmm.
Shannon Allen: as a sales job. You know, I encourage people like, it is my job to sell the farm.
Jennifer Gulizia: Thank you.
Shannon Allen: It's my job to find new revenue revenue streams for for the farm. It's my job to sell myself. Like when I call a florist, I envisioning myself as a salesperson. I'm overcoming their obstacles. Like this is a business, you know, so I really do run it that way. And I am energized by the sales piece.
Shannon Allen: So that's like my personality, you know, so, and if Lyndsay I more than anything, encourage people to create a farm that suits them, you know, and I think that that's the goal.
Lynds: Yeah.
Shannon Allen: That is the main goal.
Jennifer Gulizia: I love that. I'm curious because we are, we have less than 90 days left in the year, which is just wild to me.
Shannon Allen: Mm-hmm.
Jennifer Gulizia: And you're talking about every year. do you guys choose a word of the year?
Lynds: We do.
Shannon Allen: Mm-hmm.
Lynds: h We do every year.
Shannon Allen: We do.
Lynds: We do it our last episode of the year. We, do, but yeah, we've, I've done it. I've done it for probably, I'm just not into like a, mantra or like my theme for the year. So a word has like kind of settled. Has the word for me has been like more settling.
Lynds: I've been able to stick to it, I think in a different way. So already have my year, my word of the year for 26.
Shannon Allen: I know. Lyndsay's good. She's already got hers. Me, I don't know yet.
Jennifer Gulizia: I do too. so
Shannon Allen: What?
Jennifer Gulizia: what are your words for 2025?
Lynds: What's yours?
Jennifer Gulizia: Ooh, like that.
Lynds: so mine, it mine was connection and Shands, you, she, it was magic.
Shannon Allen: What's magic?
Jennifer Gulizia: who
Shannon Allen: Yes.
Lynds: Yes.
Shannon Allen: Yeah.
Jennifer Gulizia: like that
Shannon Allen: Lyndsay why did you choose yours again, Lyndsay?
Lynds: Connection.
Shannon Allen: Yeah.
Lynds: Just because i i really felt like I wanted to reconnect with my customer. I really feel like as a whole, what we are struggling with as an it's our country is just a lack of connection.
Shannon Allen: Mm hmm.
Lynds: I think that's what people are searching for, connection, better connection to themselves, a connection to nature, to each other.
Jennifer Gulizia: Thank you.
Lynds: And at at the core of what I do at Wild Root, that's what I want. And so i felt like, you know, the previous year, it was a little chaotic for me. And so for rolling into the season. I was like, I want to have more connection with myself. And, you know, I got into June, I've been taking once i've been taking Wednesdays off.
Lynds: I still get my weekends. Occasionally I don't, but like I've been taking Wednesdays. I've been taking a month, one week, a month off. And like, those are the things where I'm like, I still, you know, and I still want to have a successful business.
Jennifer Gulizia: Wow. Totally.
Lynds: It's just like defining what does success look like for each person. And we get so caught up on social media.
Shannon Allen: No.
Lynds: I mean, it you know, you could think as a podcasting partner, I'd be like comparing myself to Shannon, like, oh my gosh, I'm failing. I'm not doing this right.
Shannon Allen: no
Lynds: I'm not scaling. It's like, I don't feel that, you know, it's like, I'm true to like, what is driving with me and what success looks like to me. We have a profitable business. I'm, you know, an employer for five, six people and I'm happy.
Lynds: And those are the things that, you know, like, what are those things that define success for me? I've had to like redefine that and it's changed over the years. So, Yeah.
Lynds: don't know.
Shannon Allen: Mm-hmm.
Lynds: Yeah.
Jennifer Gulizia: I love that. And how did you choose magic?
Shannon Allen: Oh, yeah.
Jennifer Gulizia: Or how's that working out this year? it
Shannon Allen: Pretty good, I think. Yeah, so the idea behind magic was i was and getting to a point where I'm growing enough flowers, I think, to meet what I want to do. so I'm like, how do I make my customer experience, my life, all it, just more magical? Like when people come to the farm, like what kind of experience are they having when they come to the flower stand? Like how are they feeling like this is just like, oh the coolest thing.
Shannon Allen: Oh, my. gosh. You know, i love it when people are like, oh my gosh, this exists. You know, they're like, they can't believe it. And I like, I love that. You know, I'm like, so for me, it was, how do I make my customer experience better?
Shannon Allen: How do I make the farm continue to be a magical spot for me too? Cause you know, we see the work in it and that's why, you know, I like when we do our, you pick a design workshops it's like,
Shannon Allen: It's always good for me to come see it through your guys' eyes because sometimes all we see is the work in it. So just to focus on that customer experience and my own experience within the farm to make it more magical and finding those little those little shifts of things that we can do to create that better experience for everybody. Yeah,
Jennifer Gulizia: I love that.
Lynds: What was yours? What was your word of the year?
Shannon Allen: yeah what was your word?
Jennifer Gulizia: I had three words and then we had a family one.
Lynds: Oh.
Shannon Allen: Oh, wow. Okay.
Jennifer Gulizia: because I felt like I needed it this year. So my.
Lynds: Yeah.
Shannon Allen: Mm-hmm. Yeah.
Jennifer Gulizia: Well, guess we had, yeah. So my words were abundance because with the new field, I was like, what if I can't grow anything?
Shannon Allen: Mm-hmm.
Jennifer Gulizia: So i was like, I want an abundant mindset, not a lack mindset.
Lynds: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
Jennifer Gulizia: And we've had an abundance of flowers and we've had an abundance of weeds. So abundance means everything. is money And then gratitude. I wanted to focus on finding what I'm thankful for each day.
Jennifer Gulizia: And then kind of like you, Shannon, I was whimsical or whimsy.
Shannon Allen: Mm-hmm.
Jennifer Gulizia: i i knew it was going to be a grind this year. So we wanted to make sure everything was fun. Gratitude was our family word. And then i had a business coach this last year. She's like, you got to have the word fluid in it.
Jennifer Gulizia: She's like, you have to be willing to be flexible.
Shannon Allen: Oh.
Jennifer Gulizia: She's like a new farm. You have no idea how things are going to happen. And boy, have I had to be fluid this year. Like we thought we'd have a barn by now. Well, we don't have a barn by now. We we thought we'd have irrigation in April.
Lynds: Yeah.
Shannon Allen: Mm-hmm.
Jennifer Gulizia: We got irrigation in June. So, I mean, everything has just been this moving timeline and it's like, how do you find gratitude and move with all of it?
Shannon Allen: Mm-hmm.
Jennifer Gulizia: so
Shannon Allen: Yeah. I like that.
Jennifer Gulizia: So you mentioned you have a word, Lyndsay picked out for next year. Is that a secret?
Lynds: yeah
Jennifer Gulizia: Tell your final year end of season.
Lynds: No, no, no. I can tell you.
Jennifer Gulizia: and
Lynds: Yeah. So I, I love, do this, I did this exercise probably four or five years ago with my core values. And the one that is like, i have several core values, generosity, freedom.
Lynds: there's, intimacy, not in a, you know, connection piece is where that comes in.
Jennifer Gulizia: uh-huh
Shannon Allen: you
Lynds: Those were up at the top of my list. And freedom is one that I really feel like I struggle with, with the farm because a farm can feel like it owns you, right? The crop, a thing has to be picked, a task has to be done, you know, these, these things that, and I, I,
Lynds: have had this mindset around that like the, the farm traps me. and so I, my goal, my goal in owning my business and what my really, what my focus is for 2026 is to have freedom for myself personally outside of my business, because we all know as entrepreneurs and both of us, all, all of us running multiple businesses with a podcast and with your farm that,
Lynds: it takes up a lot of brain space. you know It's 24-7, 365.
Jennifer Gulizia: Mm-hmm.
Lynds: And so in enable i want to to allow myself to have more freedom in my personal life. like i used to love to can and i had my own vegetable garden.
Lynds: i there is no tomato on this There's not been a tomato on this farm for years. And so that's something for myself I want to have back. I want to have a cutting garden for myself again you know because I absolutely love wandering and you know, going out and picking flowers for myself, but making that more of a priority that I don't feel like, you know, it's this constant hustle. Uh, and, and there's obviously spring, there's times of the year that that's just like, it is what it is, but how can i you know, how can I make that a priority throughout the whole season for myself? So, yeah.
Jennifer Gulizia: I love that. That's a great word. Do you have one picked out Shannon? or Are you still thinking?
Shannon Allen: No, I do not. Lyndsay is so ahead of me. usually I'm a last minute. I'll be, we'll be recording that last episode. You're like, all right, Lyndsay got five words.
Shannon Allen: Which one, which one, which one do you like?
Jennifer Gulizia: You can have five.
Shannon Allen: oh
Lynds: Well, for, you can't have five.
Shannon Allen: Yeah. Yeah.
Lynds: It's just like, it's, it's always, I feel like my word always kind of comes to me because of the pains or whatever I'm feeling through the current season. And that's really where it's like, I've just been like, okay, what is not working this season for me, whether that's in my business or my personal life and how can I kind of pull that in?
Jennifer Gulizia: Totally.
Lynds: And so that's, I feel like that's kind of where that's gravitated out of, but yeah.
Jennifer Gulizia: Mine's similar to yours.
Lynds: But it's yours.
Jennifer Gulizia: Nourish.
Shannon Allen: Oh, that's a good word.
Lynds: Yeah. Yeah.
Shannon Allen: Yes.
Jennifer Gulizia: Because I'm just so tired this year. It's been like such a grind and it's such a good way. Like I'm not complaining, but I'm like, I need more time to nourish my family, to nourish myself, nourish what we've put down in the farm too. It's like we planted an entire acre of flowers this year, which Maybe it looks small to some people, but that whole space needs to be nourished to come back next year.
Shannon Allen: That's a lot.
Lynds: Yeah.
Jennifer Gulizia: So next year, instead of being an expansion year, is a nourishing year.
Lynds: Perfect.
Shannon Allen: I like it.
Lynds: Yeah, that's great.
Jennifer Gulizia: So speaking of next year, you guys have something really exciting on the horizon.
Lynds: Yeah.
Lynds: Mm-hmm.
Shannon Allen: Mm-hmm. o
Lynds: We do.
Jennifer Gulizia: You want to, but but well, I guess it's not really spilling the beans because most people have heard, but tell us what you're cooking up.
Lynds: Yeah.
Lynds: Yeah. we So we Shannon and I, actually, when we started our podcast in 22, we kind of had this idea that we wanted to do a virtual conference. We wanted to be able to bring farmers because this this podcast was kind of born out of people asking us questions and feeling like we wanted to be able to help more people and you know, not to talk trash in the flower farmer Facebook group, but it's grown to a point that there's not a lot of, you got to find your footing on what's actual solid, you know, whether it's it's good advice or not.
Lynds: And so, you know, the podcast was kind of born out of that space. And so we have been kind of dreaming up this idea to have a virtual conference for flower farmers or just for farmers. doesn't even have to be for flower farmers or people that are just in the dreaming stage of their business, that they're growing flowers. And how do we,
Lynds: incorporate, you know, how do we get a lot of people there? we We talked about doing an in-person conference, by the, the virtual was like, man, this, this is, we want it to be affordable.
Shannon Allen: Yeah.
Lynds: We want it to be packed with information and give people the confidence to walk away and run, either take off with their dream or to revitalize what they're already doing.
Lynds: So we're hosting DirtCon, which is our January 10th and 11th. It's a two-day virtual conference. We have 16 awesome speakers through the industry. And yeah, it's it's a great... Tickets are on sale now. And it's a... Yeah, we have a dirt bag. So we call our listeners dirt bags.
Lynds: I should reference that. We...
Shannon Allen: Yeah.
Jennifer Gulizia: I love that.
Lynds: We, yeah, we call it, we call our listeners dirtbags. I don't know. i I think I said it one time and Shannon kind of cringed and then people latched onto to it and that's kind of how it stayed. But, we, yeah, we, we have a dirtbag ticket, which is our entry level, gives you access to two days. And then we have a dirt boss ticket that gives you a lifetime access to the conference and to be able to, have the speaker downloads and then all the templates and all that stuff too. So yeah, very excited.
Jennifer Gulizia: Very exciting. I should add that quite a few of your speakers have been a guest on this podcast. I know I saw Charlotte Smith is one of your guests.
Shannon Allen: Yeah.
Lynds: Yeah.
Jennifer Gulizia: And did I see Laurie Hernandez and Lenny Larkin?
Shannon Allen: Yeah.
Lynds: Yep. Lori.
Shannon Allen: yeah
Lynds: Yep.
Lynds: Jenny.
Jennifer Gulizia: Jenny Marks? Yes.
Lynds: Yep.
Shannon Allen: Yeah.
Jennifer Gulizia: I'm sure there's a few others on there too. was looking at your list.
Shannon Allen: yeah
Jennifer Gulizia: You've got a great lineup of speakers.
Shannon Allen: who
Lynds: Thank you.
Shannon Allen: It really is a good group.
Jennifer Gulizia: And is that is that right around the same time as the ASCFG conference?
Lynds: Yes. It's the week before, I think.
Jennifer Gulizia: Yes. week before so people can really load up on information and then maybe meet some of those people in person the following week.
Shannon Allen: Mm-hmm.
Lynds: Yep.
Shannon Allen: Mm-hmm.
Lynds: Yep.
Shannon Allen: Yeah, yeah, definitely.
Lynds: absolutely Yeah, absolutely. That's a really good idea. Yeah.
Jennifer Gulizia: You guys should have a meet up there.
Lynds: I know.
Shannon Allen: well
Jennifer Gulizia: are Are you guys going?
Lynds: Shannon's going. Shannon's speaking at ASCFG.
Shannon Allen: Yep.
Lynds: yeah i Yeah, I'm not.
Jennifer Gulizia: Are you?
Shannon Allen: Mm-hmm.
Lynds: I'm going to be in Orlando speaking at another farming conference like a week and a half later. So I figured that was enough travel.
Jennifer Gulizia: Okay.
Shannon Allen: Mm-hmm. The 10th and the 11th.
Jennifer Gulizia: Totally.
Lynds: So, yeah.
Jennifer Gulizia: Yes. Well, that's exciting.
Lynds: 10th and 11th.
Jennifer Gulizia: Okay. So DirtCon is January, 2026. What dates?
Shannon Allen: who the tenth and the eleventh
Lynds: tenth and eleven
Jennifer Gulizia: 10th and 11th and tickets are on sale now.
Shannon Allen: Yes.
Lynds: Yep. yep
Jennifer Gulizia: And how do people get tickets?
Shannon Allen: They can go to our website, thedirtonflowers.com forward slash dirtcon. We'll get you, Jen, we'll get you a link too that you can use in the show notes too.
Shannon Allen: So we'll make sure we get that over to you.
Jennifer Gulizia: Awesome.
Shannon Allen: But... There's such a great group over there. There's like the speakers, the access to the speakers, they're they're just the industry experts. Like in order to have access to these people, it would cost like a gazillion dollars. So it's so nice that Lyndsay and I can offer something super affordable to give everyone a good learning opportunity and to create you know their farm plan for 2026. That's the goal is to leave
Lynds: Mm-hmm.
Shannon Allen: with a plan, marketing, profit, growing, little bit of inspiration to implement it all. that That's the goal. that's That's what turned Lyndsay and I's businesses around.
Shannon Allen: So we're hoping to give that back to everybody else just just at a really affordable price.
Jennifer Gulizia: I love that. I was picking up my daughter from a friend's house this weekend and my friend is a doctor and she just gotten back from a conference in Hawaii. And I was like, oh, how fun. And she's like, well, it's continued education. And it made me start thinking it's like so many professions have required continuing education.
Jennifer Gulizia: But in flower farming, you're kind of, unless you have these connections, you're kind of out on this island by yourself.
Lynds: Mm-hmm.
Jennifer Gulizia: What an awesome opportunity to have this continued education with some of the industry's best who have literally been in the weeds and in the dirt sharing from experience.
Shannon Allen: yeah yeah thank you
Jennifer Gulizia: So I think that's awesome what you're doing. And it's not bad. to we we invest so much money into our flowers and our plugs and our seeds, but we also need to make sure we're investing in ourselves.
Jennifer Gulizia: So.
Lynds: yeah
Jennifer Gulizia: I think you guys have something really exciting coming up. Thank you for joining me today.
Shannon Allen: thank you
Jennifer Gulizia: Two last things before we say goodbye. The first one is where can our listeners find each of you with your individual farms?
Shannon Allen: Right.
Lynds: Yeah. So I'm white on Instagram. I'm wildrootflowerco. So I'm wildroot underscore flowerco. And you can go to my website at wildrootflowerco.com and you can check out all the things we have going on there.
Jennifer Gulizia: Awesome.
Shannon Allen: And for me at Bloom Hill Farm on Instagram and then bloomhillfarm.com for our website to learn more and connect with us. Obviously, if you want to listen to the podcast, the Dirt on Flowers podcast, you can find us over there two times a week.
Shannon Allen: one very honest, uh, look on Wednesdays at what our farm weeks are looking like the good, the bad, the ugly. there's so much to learn in other people's wins and losses. So Lyndsay i we are super honest over there on Wednesdays. And then we, on Friday, we do like a more educational episode, really topic driven or a really great interview. So, we're two times a week over there at, at the dirt on flowers.
Jennifer Gulizia: Awesome. And we'll have links to all the of those in the show notes today. Before we say goodbye, my final question is, is there anything I haven't asked you today that you want to leave our listeners with?
Lynds: Hmm. I don't know.
Shannon Allen: I don't know. i i
Lynds: I think – I guess I would say we we touched on the grit piece, but this is sort of blowing away that like the pixie dust glitter. It's like being and being a business owner is is challenging.
Lynds: You know, it that comes with a lot of reward – But don't give up on it. Like if you feel like you have an idea and you want this thing to work, you will figure out how to make it work. It doesn't mean that it's always going to be easy, think that's just –
Lynds: it's, it's hard to hear, you know, when you're like, oh man, you're like in a tough spot. but that it does, it's, it's always like a, it's a wave, right?
Shannon Allen: Mm-hmm.
Lynds: It's like hard for a little bit.
Shannon Allen: Mm-hmm.
Lynds: It doesn't say hard forever. And, you know, just believe in yourself and you will make it, you will make it happen, whatever you're doing. so
Shannon Allen: Yeah. And take the step. That's what Lyndsay and I are always encouraging people. They're like so much time is just sitting waiting for the perfect time for something.
Jennifer Gulizia: Right.
Shannon Allen: And Lyndsay and I are fire. What do we say? Fire ready aim.
Lynds: We safe.
Shannon Allen: Okay. So that's the whole like done is better than perfect idea. Like that is Lyndsay and I in a nutshell. you know we're doing things before we're ready. And that's like, we're in that in that mindset like 95% of the time because you're never ready. So what that's what we're seeing is people just scared to take the step. But you don't have to take a 20 acre step. You just have to take a little baby step and start growing a few things and let it grow from there. And sometimes you know why why we think we have to have it all figured out right away is just ridiculous. you know so just take
Shannon Allen: the first that and you'll be better than where you were, you know, before that.
Jennifer Gulizia: I love that both of those are such great pieces of advice. Shannon, Lyndsay thank you so much for joining us.
Shannon Allen: think
Lynds: Yeah.
Jennifer Gulizia: And this was a great conversation.
Shannon Allen: Thank you.
Jennifer Gulizia: I hope you guys have a wonderful fall. And Shannon, I can't wait to hear what your word of the year is for 2026.
Shannon Allen: Thank you. I know. Okay. I need to get on that.
Lynds: Yeah.
Shannon Allen: I do.
Lynds: yeah
Jennifer Gulizia: All right, ladies, thanks so much for joining us today. Have a good one.
Shannon Allen: Thank.
