Become a Creator today!Start creating today - Share your story with the world!
Start for free
00:00:00
00:00:01
Ep.76: How to Sell Your Flowers with Lennie Larkin of Flower Farming for Profit
1.8k Plays15 days ago
Have you ever wondered how to confidently sell your flowers and build a thriving flower business?
In this episode of The Backyard Bouquet Podcast, host Jennifer Gulizia sits down with Lennie Larkin, flower farmer, educator, and founder of Flower Farming for Profit. Lennie shares her expert advice on pricing, mindset, and how to approach flower sales with clarity and confidence.
Tune in to Episode 76 to learn:
- How to know when you’re ready to start selling your flowers
- The biggest myths about flower sales (and what actually works)
- Mindset shifts that help you charge your worth
- How to attract loyal customers who value your story
- What to expect at the upcoming Sell Your Flowers Summit
Whether you’re dreaming about turning your garden into a business or already running a small flower farm, this conversation will help you sell your flowers with purpose and profitability.
Show Notes: https://thefloweringfarmhouse.com/2025/11/11/ep-76-how-to-sell-your-flowers-with-confidence/
Learn more and connect with Lennie:
👉 Website: flowerfarmingforprofit.com
👉 Instagram: @flowerfarming.forprofit
👉 Sell Your Flowers Summit: Join the Summit: https://flower-farming-for-profit-academy.mykajabi.com/syfs
💐 About the Sell Your Flowers Summit:
The Sell Your Flowers Summit is a free three-day online event designed to help small-scale and backyard flower farmers sell more flowers with confidence. Hosted by Lennie Larkin of Flower Farming for Profit, the summit features leading voices in flower farming, sales, and marketing. Each session is short, actionable, and focused on real strategies that work in today’s floral marketplace.
👉 Learn more and register for the summit: https://flower-farming-for-profit-academy.mykajabi.com/syfs
Follow the Podcast: https://www.instagram.com/thebackyardbouquetpodcast/
Sign up for our newsletter: https://bit.ly/thefloweringfarmhousenewsletter
*** Rate, Review, & Follow The Backyard Bouquet ***
If you enjoyed this episode, will you please consider leaving the podcast a review? I'd love to know what you enjoyed most about the episode.
New episodes every week to help keep your garden blooming!
Recommended
Transcript
Intro
Introduction to Lenny Larkin and Flower Farming
00:00:57
Jennifer Gulizia
Hey, flower friends, and welcome back to the Backyard Bouquet podcast. Today, I'm thrilled to welcome back one of our most requested guests, Lenny Larkin of B-Side Farm.
00:01:08
Jennifer Gulizia
And if you love growing flowers, but the selling side still makes your head spin, then today's episode is for you.
00:01:18
Jennifer Gulizia
Lenny is a seasoned flower farmer, educator, and the author of Flower Farming for Profit, a book that's inspired growers across the country to approach their farms with clarity, purpose, and confidence.
00:01:30
Jennifer Gulizia
She's someone who deeply understands the realities of turning a passion for flowers into a livelihood that's both creative and sustainable.
Understanding Values and Pricing in Flower Farming
00:01:39
Jennifer Gulizia
In today's conversation, we'll explore the what and the why behind selling your flowers, what it really means to step inside the role of a grower and seller and why understanding your values, boundaries, and goals matter long before you price your first bouquet.
00:01:55
Jennifer Gulizia
So whether you're growing on a few backyard beds or on a few acres, this conversation will help you get inspired to sell your flowers confidently and authentically.
Introduction to 'Sell Your Flowers' Summit
00:02:05
Jennifer Gulizia
So Lenny is here today to share about her free upcoming sell your flowers summit that's taking place so this month.
00:02:12
Jennifer Gulizia
And I can't wait to have Lenny share more about it with us today. So without further ado, let's dive into today's conversation. Hey, well Lenny, welcome back to the podcast.
00:02:22
Lennie Larkin
Hey, Jen, thank you so much for having me. It is such an honor to be back here with you. Appreciate it.
00:02:28
Jennifer Gulizia
It's great to have you back. It's been fun this last year. I've had a chance to connect with you a few times. You've helped mentor us on our new farm and I joined your cohort for your wedding.
00:02:41
Jennifer Gulizia
What was the exact title of that? I apologize.
00:02:42
Lennie Larkin
Yeah, it was we called it your first 10 weddings. It was my first time running that program. I was so psyched that you joined. It was so fun to have a friendly face in the room. I loved that program.
00:02:52
Jennifer Gulizia
It was awesome. It was great. I got a lot of good information because I've always wholesaled my flowers.
00:02:58
Lennie Larkin
Yeah.
00:02:58
Jennifer Gulizia
So it's fun to look into the possibility of now that we have a larger farm, being able to offer more services to our
From Farmer to Business Coach: Lenny's Journey
00:03:04
Jennifer Gulizia
clients.
00:03:05
Lennie Larkin
yeah
00:03:06
Jennifer Gulizia
So I was looking at my calendar and it's been almost a year to the date since you joined us on the podcast to talk about your book, Flower Farming for Profit. And now There's some new exciting things that you reached out and you said, Hey, can I come back and join you today?
00:03:23
Jennifer Gulizia
So do you want to tell us what you're up to now?
00:03:26
Lennie Larkin
Yes. Thank you for being here. Thank you. I'm thanking you. Jen, thank you for being here on your podcast. Thank you for having me. yeah a year. the The year is just like flying by in my mind. It feels like so much has happened this year, but really I've just been here in my office all year, plodding away on all my courses and
Sales and Marketing in Flower Farming
00:03:45
Lennie Larkin
coaching programs. And, you know, more than anything,
00:03:50
Lennie Larkin
you know So, you know, to step back for a second. So I am a now a full time business coach for small scale flower farmers. And, you know, people know me for talking about numbers a lot, for encouraging people to charge more for their flowers, to figure out their pricing, to think about their numbers.
00:04:08
Lennie Larkin
But more even than numbers in recent years, I've become a sales and marketing coach for flower farmers. So I'm really focused on selling, sales, marketing, pricing, finding your customers and being strategic about it. So this has become probably my biggest focus with another small focus on crop planning in there.
00:04:32
Lennie Larkin
But it's mainly because this is the type of question I get asked all the time. You know, I've taught, we just counted about 1300 students ever since I started counting, which is about two years ago.
00:04:44
Lennie Larkin
And the bulk of the questions that come my way from new flower farmers, so either those just starting and dreaming or maybe a few years into farming, their questions are about finding new customers, about charging enough or what to charge,
00:04:44
Jennifer Gulizia
Wow.
00:04:58
Lennie Larkin
about how to wrap their head around marketing and selling because most of these new farmers are like me and probably like you too, Jen, like started farming because we want to be growing flowers, not because we want to be thinking about how to sell them.
00:05:12
Lennie Larkin
And so have you know, taking notes on this idea of mine to have this online summit for the past few years. And I really grew up in this industry, speaking at conferences and planning conferences. I, you know, I spoke at my first conference,
00:05:29
Lennie Larkin
in 2014, my first ASCFG conference, and then quickly joined their board and was a big part of planning conferences with them for a number of years.
00:05:39
Lennie Larkin
And then I put on things on my own. So I've been putting together these events and I was planning this summit for a while and it started to take shape as one that's focused around selling your flowers.
00:05:50
Lennie Larkin
There's tons that I teach about when it comes to growing your flowers, but really, as you know, I'm focused on the business side of it and how to sell your flowers, how to find and cultivate great customers to get the word out.
00:06:03
Lennie Larkin
This is such a big focus of mine, such a big pain point for my students and for new farmers. And there's still just gap out there of educational resources for people of what's working in 2025, really 2026 and beyond when it comes to selling your flowers as a small scale flower farmer.
00:06:20
Lennie Larkin
So the you know what started as the flower farm sales and marketing summit turned into the sell your flowers summit, which is the name and the concept that I landed on. So I'm so we excited for this
Mindset Shifts for Successful Flower Selling
00:06:33
Lennie Larkin
summit. I, you know, I'm having trouble knowing how to even talk about it because there's so many components that I'm equally excited about.
00:06:43
Lennie Larkin
i brought in not only people from our industry, but also from outside our industry, sales coaches, marketing coaches to give really short poignant, punchy talks. And we'll talk about this more throughout, you know, throughout the interview today, because I know we're here to talk about kind of selling your flowers in general. But this event is taking place on November 20th, 21st and 22nd. It's three days.
00:07:07
Lennie Larkin
And there are free tickets available as well as upgrades to an all access pass that gets you lifetime access. Yeah, Jen, I can't wait. I'm so excited for the summit.
00:07:18
Jennifer Gulizia
I can tell that you are so passionate about this and it's neat to see your career evolve to another level where you kind of mastered being a flower farmer. You had a very successful career growing and selling your flowers and now you're paying that forward and helping other people so that they can have the same success that you have experienced.
00:07:40
Jennifer Gulizia
can we talk about mindset a little bit about that? It's so easy to fall in love with growing our flowers.
00:07:45
Lennie Larkin
Yes.
00:07:48
Jennifer Gulizia
Like, I mean, who doesn't love flowers? Everyone is like, oh you've got the best job in the world, but you only have the best job in the world if you're actually selling them and making it profitable. Otherwise it starts to get stressful.
00:07:59
Jennifer Gulizia
So a lot of people, I think get their start because they love flowers. It's not like I'm going to go sell flowers and make a bunch of money. It's like, I'm going to grow flowers because i really love them. And then there's kind of this moment of, oh crap, I've got so many flowers.
00:08:13
Jennifer Gulizia
I, my family doesn't want more flowers in the house. I can't give these all away. Can I actually make money with these? And it's kind of a defining moment for someone where they, where they get that question in their mind and they're like, well, can I do this?
00:08:26
Jennifer Gulizia
Should I do this? It's that she can do that. So why can't I kind of moment?
00:08:31
Lennie Larkin
Yeah.
00:08:31
Jennifer Gulizia
How does someone know when that moment hits that they're actually ready to start selling their flowers?
00:08:36
Lennie Larkin
Yeah, great great point and great question. Well said. in my experience, when you first feel that itch ooh, maybe I could make a business out of this. Maybe I could do more than just give flowers away to my, first my family and then my friends and neighbors, right?
00:08:54
Lennie Larkin
If you first feel that calling and you feel that itch, it's not gonna go away. I haven't talked to that, you know, I've probably talked to three people ever who didn't end up going down this road once it occurred to them to go down the road. That's not to say that everyone stays in business And I'm the first to sort of be real about this and speak out against the dangers of going into this industry and creating a business when it's actually quite a challenging road to go down. It's not all rainbows and butterflies, of course. it's It is hard work.
00:09:31
Lennie Larkin
But if you have the calling, and I feel okay, calling, you know, it is a calling, no matter what is calling you to do this. it's not going to go away. And so I think starting to lean into it and dream big and dive in and then follow that up with some education for yourself and some strategy to get going. But if you have the itch, it's not it's not going to go away. So I don't know if that's good news or bad news if you're out there and this is you. But another defining moment that I've found with all of my students, so many of my students and people I hear from him on Instagram and in my you know email list and all of this is
00:10:11
Lennie Larkin
You're growing flowers, you love growing flowers, you've already decided to make a business out of this. So maybe you're a little bit down the road from that first moment of like, could I do this? And you're doing it. But I hear this from so many people, the selling and marketing and knowing what to charge makes me makes me so nervous.
00:10:30
Lennie Larkin
So I'm going to sort of put my head down, keep working on growing the flowers and figure out the sales and marketing later. And this isn't even something that people fully articulate out loud. It's more like after some digging and all my coaching sessions, I figure out that this is what's going on for people.
Selling Strategies for New Farmers
00:10:46
Lennie Larkin
And to tell you the truth, this is what happened for me too. I didn't have a plan of where I was going to sell my flowers. I didn't have sales goals. I didn't have... Any idea how to build a connection with my followers or my customers or start building an email list. I didn't even know that was like something I needed to start doing.
00:11:06
Lennie Larkin
And so I just totally had my head in the sand. I'm going to keep growing flowers. And by doing it, it means I'm going to get better at it every day and every year. And if you'd asked me then what my strategy was to build this into a real business and to get the flowers sold, I would have told you, I probably would have blushed and I probably would have looked sheepish and I probably eventually would have said, I don't know, I'll figure that out later.
00:11:29
Lennie Larkin
Or like, it'll work itself out or I'll get to that soon. And the thing is, this is kind of the harsh truth.
00:11:39
Lennie Larkin
You won't just figure out how to get your flowers sold and how to build a business. It's magical thinking. The idea that you are going to become a better business owner or build a thriving business without focusing on the selling part.
00:12:00
Lennie Larkin
It's just, it's sort of, it's sort of nonsense, but it's understandable nonsense, you know? it's,
00:12:08
Lennie Larkin
You can be growing flowers for one year, two years, three years, and you are getting better at the growing part because you're practicing it every day. You're transplanting so many times throughout the year.
00:12:19
Lennie Larkin
You're cutting hundreds or thousands of stems. So of course you're getting faster and more efficient. But if you're not flexing muscles when it comes to sales and marketing, if you're not building those skills, trying things out, seeing what works and what doesn't,
00:12:33
Lennie Larkin
you're not going to get better at the selling. So it means you're going to grow more and more flowers without anything to do with them. And meanwhile, you're burning out, you're losing money. So to circle back to the original question, really, you know, what we need to do as flower farmers is start thinking about not just how to grow the flower, but how to sell it.
00:12:54
Lennie Larkin
And I promise you it's fun. This is as fun as growing the flowers. And this is coming from a lifelong hippie who never thought I'd become a business owner. Never thought I'd have ambitions about making a certain amount of money or, you know, anything that I've managed to accomplish in building this business and just providing for myself in this way.
00:13:15
Lennie Larkin
And the biggest, like, you know, I feel rich in that I don't have to go out and find another day job anymore. And that's how I felt once I scaled and built my flower farm too. I wasn't looking to make a killing. We don't make a killing in this industry.
00:13:30
Lennie Larkin
But my dream was to not have to scurry around and figure out how to pay my bills.
Pricing and Storytelling in Flower Marketing
00:13:37
Lennie Larkin
used to be paying my rent and now it's paying my mortgage. i I eventually did that off of my farm. And now, of course, I'm a full-time coach and the farm is sort of scaled back down because it turns out I'm not superwoman and I can't do both at once, build a new farm and build a new education business. But yeah, it's it's it's so important to focus on flexing these business person sales skills from the beginning, even in small bite-sized ways.
00:14:06
Jennifer Gulizia
That's such great advice. Now I'm thinking back to when I first got into flowers or when I decided I was going to make but some money off of selling them.
00:14:15
Lennie Larkin
Yeah.
00:14:15
Jennifer Gulizia
For me, it was, I heard one of my florists because I was a wedding photographer and I told them when I delivered some pictures, I said, you know, I grow all of these flowers. And this florist said, well, what do you do with them? And I was like, I don't know. I give them away.
00:14:28
Jennifer Gulizia
And they said, well, did you know that We buy local flowers. And that was the aha moment for me where I was like, oh, but what I did that first year is I bought a bunch of cheap seeds.
00:14:40
Jennifer Gulizia
And I know the normal analogy is like you throw a bunch of spaghetti at the wall and see what sticks. Well, for me, it was like I took a bunch of seeds. This was seven years ago, actually.
00:14:48
Lennie Larkin
Yeah.
00:14:49
Jennifer Gulizia
Well, this was 2018. So in 2018, I bought some cheap seed packets and I like scattered them in my front yard. i'm like, well, whatever grows is what I'm going to try and sell. this year. And then I was like, I'm going just figure out who to sell to.
00:15:03
Jennifer Gulizia
There's so many people entering the market. And the one thing with flowers that I think really can be confusing for people is it's like, it's not like you go into, I'm trying to think of even an example.
00:15:15
Jennifer Gulizia
My mind's having a brain freeze right now, but like, we don't have one thing. Like you don't just go and say, You look at it and you get a flower catalog and it's not one type of flower you can grow. There's 80 different flower vari varieties.
00:15:27
Jennifer Gulizia
And then there's 20 different ways that you can sell your flowers. Where should someone even start? Like, what's the first thing they should ask themselves?
00:15:33
Lennie Larkin
Yeah.
00:15:36
Lennie Larkin
Yeah, I love that. Great question. And so i took similar questions to that and brought them to this summit And we have one talk in particular.
00:15:47
Lennie Larkin
So I'm giving i'm giving this particular talk about, yeah like the reality of where to sell your flowers if you're just getting started these days.
00:15:51
Jennifer Gulizia
Oh, perfect.
00:15:59
Lennie Larkin
And I didn't want this conference to be a a summit conference, same thing. I didn't want it to be long sessions and an overview of here are all the ways you might sell your flowers. And, you know, I do that in my book, but it's not, I do go deeper and give you a sense of the cost benefit analysis of say doing a farmer's market versus doing weddings.
00:16:20
Lennie Larkin
But for this summit, i wanted to really bring my point of view to the forefront And this isn't because I think I'm all that. It's because I'm our industry's full-time business coach. I've worked with so many farmers. I work with farmers and coaching groups every single week out of the year.
00:16:39
Lennie Larkin
So I've gotten to see exactly what's working and what's not working. And that's led me to have a really evolved, nuanced... I'm trying to think of a better word. Like the word wise popped into mind. But again, that that makes it sound like i'm I think I'm...
00:16:56
Lennie Larkin
you know the bomb. I do not. It's just that I worked with so many farmers that I now have this sense of perspective. And I wanted to take that perspective and infuse it into every part of this summit. So I didn't invite speakers and say, you have free reign, give a talk in whatever you want. I gave them a very specific subject that and often a title and you know based on what their skills are. and ma me you know So all to say, this specific talk is called something like, forget what I ended up calling it, like where to sell your flowers in 2026.
00:17:30
Lennie Larkin
But this is sort of a hot take. It's that we don't need to overthink this in the beginning. We don't need to think about all of these avenues that we could potentially sell flowers and then start to do the thing of like, well, what do I like to do? And am I a people person or not? And do farmers markets fit with my lifestyle or do weddings fit with my lifestyle?
00:17:52
Lennie Larkin
Like there's so much you're going to learn about yourself throughout the process of building your
Sustainable Pricing and Community Support
00:17:55
Lennie Larkin
flower farm. And you're going to end up selling flowers in so many ways. So I think doing all that work before you've even started of deciding where to sell, it doesn't need to be a huge undertaking.
00:18:08
Lennie Larkin
What flower farmers need to do if they're starting right now is find one way of selling that's getting in front of someone else's audience that they've already built and then eventually bring on a second way of selling where you're bringing people to you.
00:18:22
Lennie Larkin
So the first way of selling, plain and simple, It should be either a farmer's market or pop-ups at another business.
00:18:33
Lennie Larkin
Probably not both, probably just one. And you might know the answer if you're just getting started and you're looking around and you have a kind of a thriving farmer's market near you and they have openings and they would let you in.
00:18:47
Lennie Larkin
That's probably your answer. And this is funny because I've also gotten some some shade over the years because people think I'm like anti-farmer's market. And I'm not at all. I just call it like it is and I'm not afraid of...
00:18:59
Lennie Larkin
saying the truth around this, which is that most flower farmers don't end up staying at farmers markets. For most of us, it eventually, that cost-benefit analysis gets flipped on its side and we realize that we're spending so much time at the farmers market, preparing for the farmers market. And unless your sales are through the roof, it's probably not gonna pay off for the long run. But to launch a farm, to get you started, it's the best way.
00:19:23
Lennie Larkin
So let me say this even more clearly. If you're a new flower farmer, For next year, for 2026, you should either be looking to sell at a farmer's market or you should be looking to partner with a local business like a coffee shop and do pop ups at that shop, maybe a few shops.
00:19:39
Lennie Larkin
But this is, you know, if you don't have, especially if you don't have a name for yourself. which most of us don't, if you don't have a huge, if you're not like really, really connected to your local community. And even if you are connected to your local community, a lot of us are introverts. A lot of us are shy. It's pretty scary to try selling your flowers. So, you know, it's easier said than done. Like just sell to the people you know. So really we need to think of one way of selling that's getting out there in front of someone else's audience.
00:20:11
Lennie Larkin
So that's the premise of one talk I'm giving at the summit, exactly how to do that. I'm giving another talk of exactly how to pitch yourself to local businesses to collaborate with them doing pop-ups or selling flowers. you know And we have a few, we have another session, I'll get back to the question here, but we have another session with two of my students talking about how they have sold tons of their own flowers through PTA fundraisers with their kids' school.
00:20:40
Lennie Larkin
And so I wanted to give not only like sales strategy at this summit, but really specific examples of how flower farmers right now in the modern era are getting out into their networks and selling flowers.
00:20:41
Jennifer Gulizia
Oh, cool.
00:20:55
Lennie Larkin
So yeah, we don't need to overthink this in the beginning. And most of us, you know, if you're just starting, you're probably pretty small, which means you need to be selling flowers to that end consumer, as we call it. You're not selling to florists. You're not selling to a wholesaler.
00:21:08
Lennie Larkin
You'll never make enough money doing that if you're a super, super small scale. So we need to be often making, growing and making mixed bouquets and selling them to the end consumer. And that's where you're going to find them, at the farmer's market where there's already people shopping and walking by at the coffee shop or yoga studio or wine bar as a pop-up.
00:21:27
Jennifer Gulizia
So you recommend starting as a new farmer in someone else's market where they already have an audience. I love that mindset. So whether that's the pop-up or the farmer's market, and then they the goal with that is to build an email list, build a following of people so that they know who you are.
00:21:42
Lennie Larkin
Yeah.
00:21:47
Jennifer Gulizia
And then at that point, you decide what route you want to take or what do you recommend for the next steps on that?
00:21:54
Lennie Larkin
Exactly. you know Either every Saturday you're at the farmer's market or every other Tuesday you're doing a pop-up at the coffee shop, whatever it is. Just like you said, Jen, you're collecting email addresses, you're getting social media followers, you're creating content, you're taking pictures and video just so you have it and you can start to build your
Summit's Structure and Community Focus
00:22:12
Lennie Larkin
online presence. right And you're staying in touch with those people and you're cultivating them to really become great customers of yours by storytelling. You're bringing them in and telling them the story of your farm, even if your farm has barely started. That's interesting to people. I know flower farmers come to me and they say, I don't have anything to say yet. I don't really have anything to take pictures of. I'm just starting. I'm starting a few seeds in my bathroom or I have a few raised beds.
00:22:39
Lennie Larkin
And I tell them that is super interesting. Think of all the people you already know who would love to live vicariously through what you're doing. So you're starting to build that connection and telling the story of your farm as it grows.
00:22:50
Lennie Larkin
And we have talks at the summit devoted to how to do that authentically, both from a few marketers as well as from a few flower farmers. And
00:23:01
Lennie Larkin
you are kind of bringing them into your world, staying connected with them over email, over social media, in person when you see them, so that when you're finally ready to say, listen, I'm starting a farm stand or I'm starting a subscription, those people will follow you. And so they'll start, they'll keep going to the farmer's market for their veggies or they'll keep going to the coffee shop for their coffee, but maybe in a year or two, you are no longer selling at that place because you have brought them back to to your farm essentially.
00:23:30
Lennie Larkin
and whether or not you can actually host them on your farm. Because a lot of people are small or urban and can't do that, but you're selling to them without needing kind of an intermediary of another business. Yeah.
00:23:41
Jennifer Gulizia
What's the benefit of bringing them from a place like the farmer's market to your farm?
00:23:47
Lennie Larkin
Yeah. So I, you know, I love farm stands. You know that. I teach a farm stand course that is less about all of the different options of what you might do with a farm stand and it's more proven results. Here's what actually works, like really nitty gritty stuff, like Here is my template for a checkout sheet that you need everyone to fill out when they're leaving the farm stand. And here's how exactly to make sure they actually leave you their email address.
00:24:16
Lennie Larkin
Here's exactly how to fine tune your pricing in a strategic way so that you're getting $25 from each customer rather than $10 from each customer. Like really nitty gritty, specific stuff on how to how did have a successful farm stand.
00:24:32
Lennie Larkin
But, you know, farm stands aren't for absolutely everyone. That's why I mentioned the subscription as another option. or It could be online sales on your website. But really, it's that you are maintaining that direct connection with your customer and you're not weing needing to spend more time or more of your budget giving any of that to either the farmer's market or the coffee shop, you know? Yeah.
00:24:59
Lennie Larkin
It's so wonderful to see this community you're building around your farm grow and your profit will increase once you no longer need to be spending time at the farmer's market or doing the pop-up and maybe you continue doing one of those not everyone stops the farmer's market not everyone stops doing the pop-up but they're at that point serving different goals right maybe you're still doing pop-ups with the goal of getting in front of new people getting new eyeballs on your business but the people who have become your biggest raving fans they're starting to shop at your farm stand And so you're starting to diversify your business in that way, but you can see it's really smart, strategic diversification. Not, I'm going to see if I can do weddings and I'm going to see if I can do a farmer's market and I'm going to offer DIY buckets. It's no, I sell it my farm stand because I've built my reputation and there's a group of
00:25:52
Lennie Larkin
10 to 50 people who shop with me every week at my farm stand. So that's my way of making sales. That's my way of selling the bulk of my product. That's my way of a really low lift way of selling. There aren't many expenses associated with selling through a farm stand. You make the bouquets, you put them on the table, you know?
00:26:10
Lennie Larkin
And then you're still maybe doing the pop-up, but that's to get in front of new customers to get your name out there. You can see that as like your marketing budget. So you've diversified, but in a super, super streamlined strategic way.
00:26:24
Jennifer Gulizia
Thank you. What are some of the misconceptions about what it really means to sell flowers successfully?
00:26:33
Lennie Larkin
Yes. I think the biggest myth, and no one says this out loud, I sort of alluded to it earlier, but the flowers are never going to sell themselves.
00:26:48
Lennie Larkin
You're never going to build a farm stand, open it. You could have the most beautiful flowers in the world and they're not just going to sell. And like I said earlier, you are not going to magically figure this out unless you start actively trying to figure it out from day one.
00:27:05
Lennie Larkin
You know, I work with so many farmers and this was me as well, who it wasn't until year three, four five, that they realized, you know what, I need to get as serious with the selling of the flowers as I am with the growing of the flowers. Because until then, you're working 20, 30, 40, 50, 60, 70 hours a week, weeding your fields, tending to these flowers, pinching these flowers, researching these flowers, and you're treating the the selling side of the business as an afterthought.
00:27:37
Lennie Larkin
Really, it's like half of your business and you should maybe be spending even half your time working on it. But once we get there, people don't know what to do. They're like, okay, well, what does that mean? And of course, that's why created the summit. That's what I teach in Flower Farming Business Academy, how to start making sales, how to start building this connection with your customers, how to start an email list, what to even say in these emails.
00:28:02
Lennie Larkin
Let's move on to you know the second myth that I see, which is that to do well or to dive into flower sales that you're gonna come off as pushy or salesy or inauthentic.
00:28:17
Lennie Larkin
And that does not have to be the case. You can actually absolutely be 100% you be and still I'm going to use the word aggressive, aggressively sell your flowers.
00:28:28
Lennie Larkin
This doesn't mean you're being aggressive to any person out there. This doesn't ever mean you're saying, listen, you need a bouquet today. Do you know why you need this bouquet? Let me tell you. It's never a used car salesman. It's never force feeding someone.
00:28:42
Lennie Larkin
It is simply creating a connection, telling your story in a way that resonates with other people, And reminding people that you have flowers for sale, but in different, interesting ways.
00:28:57
Lennie Larkin
You can do this and not betray your morals. You can do this and not lower your standards. You can do this and not piss off your friends and family and community. you know you're not like You're not... You planting your flag in the ground and announcing that you have a business...
00:29:19
Lennie Larkin
is not overbearing. It's not taking up too much space in the world. It's not you being greedy. It's not you being a capitalist. It's you saying, i want to do this project with my one precious life.
00:29:38
Lennie Larkin
And to do this, I need to think about What makes people, humans buy things? That's a missing link, you know? So let me work on how I can not only become a better grower, but become a better connector, connecting to my customers and potential customers, and then eventually selling to them.
00:30:00
Lennie Larkin
I think maybe there's one more myth that I would share, which is that keeping your prices low is a kind and supportive thing to do for your community.
00:30:15
Lennie Larkin
You know, most of the flower farmers that I work with are do-gooders. They're people pleasers. They're givers. Most of them are mothers. Most of them are coming from another career in caregiving. It's sort of wild.
00:30:31
Lennie Larkin
Like, this is such a trend that I see. You're either coming from nursing or social work or maybe retiring from being a teacher or leaving your career as a teacher. Some beautiful profession and you've been a caregiver and a caretaker for so long.
00:30:47
Lennie Larkin
And now I find that these farmers start to feel this itch of wanting to create something for themselves, but also to give back to their community. But I find that there's this disconnect. You're coming from this other career or other job or from taking care of your kids.
00:31:01
Lennie Larkin
And you're like, you know what? i want to do this another way that feels like me. So I'm going to keep my prices really low. I'm going to give away a ton of bouquets. I'm not going to be pushy. I'm not going to be salesy.
00:31:13
Lennie Larkin
And Jen, I think that's the most beautiful sentiment. But it's it's not... Not only is it not realistic, but it's misguided. You are going to go out of here's what and here's what I have to say to those people. It's that if that is how you set out to do this business, you aren't going to be in business two years from now.
00:31:32
Lennie Larkin
You're going to burn out. It's not going to pay off. Life is going to get in the way. And you'll close your doors. And I used to not say this out loud because I didn't want to discourage people.
00:31:43
Lennie Larkin
But I am more than happy to say this out loud now because it's it's the reality. I've seen so many farmers in my kind of cohort, as well as mentors of mine, as well as people who've come in the doors after me.
00:31:57
Lennie Larkin
I've seen them stop farming because it didn't pan out. They weren't able to put enough money in their pocket. So what's better? You selling flowers for pennies or for $10, $15 for these big, beautiful bouquets because you want to be good to your community and you sell a couple hundred bouquets over a few years and then you go out of business versus if you figure out what you need to charge to stay in business and charge more appropriate prices,
00:32:26
Lennie Larkin
Still probably cheaper than local florists, but probably more expensive than the local grocery store selling imported flowers. You're charging more than that. You're charging prices that feel high to you right now.
00:32:36
Lennie Larkin
They feel unfair to you right now. But you know what? You're going to stay in business for two years, five years, 10 years, 20 years. You're going to sell flowers at prices that work for you.
00:32:47
Lennie Larkin
And you're going to find customers that will pay those prices, Customers who would love to pay those prices because they believe in you and they're tapped into your story. And guess what? You can give back with your business in a million different ways.
00:33:01
Lennie Larkin
You can create programs for the underserved in your communities. You can give away flowers to senior citizens.
00:33:12
Lennie Larkin
You can do all the do-gooder stuff you want, but that is separate from you and your sales and your pricing. I have so much to say to the do gooders out there. I want to give them a hug. And then I want to give kick in the butt, you know, because it's, it's misguided. I want to help them keep doing good by staying in business in a way that supports their family and their community in the long run.
00:33:43
Jennifer Gulizia
Thank you for sharing those myths that are such common misconceptions, I think, with a lot of new growers.
00:33:51
Jennifer Gulizia
So let's talk about the mindset then. So if someone has been growing their garden and they probably have had a lot of flowers and they've been giving them away, how do they shift their mindset to be able to start charging for those flowers?
00:34:04
Jennifer Gulizia
What are some of those but limiting beliefs that they maybe need to release to be able to charge for those flowers or charge their worth?
00:34:11
Lennie Larkin
It's so interesting. Right, right, exactly. I mean, it's so interesting because as I've said, flower farming is hard. It's a hard road. But with new flower farmers just starting to get a business off the ground and start making money and selling flowers consistently, the biggest thing holding people back is their own brains.
00:34:35
Lennie Larkin
Like that that need to stay safe. And so... Jen, I know you're a big kind of mindset student, and I think you probably could teach me worlds about mindset and personal development.
00:34:47
Lennie Larkin
But I find with the farmers I coach, they have so many underlying fears that are not even keeping them from dreaming, bi but keeping them from taking the small steps they need to be taking to start building the business that they're dreaming about.
00:35:07
Lennie Larkin
And you've i you've hit the nail on the head, this kind of mindset that selling your flowers or aiming to make a profit is somehow dirty or pushy or salesy.
00:35:21
Lennie Larkin
It's just so not true. So once we can reframe it and really think about selling as a service, as the fact that you have this goal of growing flowers and getting them out to your community,
00:35:35
Lennie Larkin
Guess what? that's That's wonderful. To get those bouquets, to get those flowers, people are going to buy them. And to buy them, they need to be paying prices that is helping you stay prices that are keeping you in business.
00:35:48
Lennie Larkin
Prices that are going to help you stay in business. you know So again, if you're selling $20 bouquet you $18 grow, that cost you eighteen dollars to grow You won't have any more bouquets to sell in two years. And just a real caveat, real quick, real side note here, no one knows their costs. So you know if you're a brand new flower farmer and you're thinking, I don't know how much it costs me to grow a bouquet or a flower, you're not alone and that's okay.
00:36:16
Lennie Larkin
So at this point, you need to take my word for it. You are not gonna be making enough money selling at that price. you know I made this poster a few years ago. I call it the the flower dollar poster. I'll share it with jen for your with you, Jen, for your show notes.
00:36:30
Lennie Larkin
But it shows that on a small scale flower farm, usually so owner is going to be pocketing like 25 to 40% of their total sales as profit.
00:36:44
Lennie Larkin
And we could define that differently. But basically, if I'm selling $25 bouquet, at the end of the day, maybe five dollars of that is going in my pocket And so you can imagine that if you're selling flowers at this really low level, again, I'm just i'm just repeating myself over and over, I realize, but you won't be here in a few years.
00:37:07
Lennie Larkin
You just won't. And I want you to be here in a few years. I think the world still needs more flowers. I think our country and, you know, all the students and the farmers I work with and all these other countries, so I know you probably have a wide listener base too, Jen,
00:37:22
Lennie Larkin
We still need more flowers. We still need more flower farms. And I know you might be listening from a really crowded marketplace. You might have five farm stands on your street and you're saying, Lenny, you're crazy. We don't need more flower farms.
00:37:35
Lennie Larkin
Yes, we do. I promise you, we do. like And we're still competing with imported flowers for the most part. So you need to be here. You need to be in business. And if there are, I think when we just get started, we hear we hear the loudest voices around us and we let that those voices like seep into our brains and keep us small.
00:37:59
Lennie Larkin
And that just feeds into this mindset that keeps us small. So you might have a vocal neighbor or maybe your first farmer's market customer who's complaining about your prices or comparing your prices to the farmer down the street.
00:38:15
Lennie Larkin
And you might take that loud voice to heart because it's the only one you can hear because you haven't interacted with that many people yet when it comes to selling your flowers.
00:38:27
Lennie Larkin
But just because someone is giving you that feedback doesn't mean it actually has anything to do with your business and your flowers. Other people have no idea dear how hard it is to grow flowers.
00:38:41
Lennie Larkin
And when I say other people, I mean the general public. Like the people walking by your stand at the farmer's market or walking by your farm stand or walking by your flowers at the pop-up, they have no idea that only $5 from that $25 bouquet is going into your pocket.
00:38:58
Lennie Larkin
They also have no idea that when they shop with you, another $5 that they spend on that bouquet is going to support the local compost company or is going to pay your first part-time worker.
00:39:10
Lennie Larkin
And you're aiming to pay that person a living wage, not just like money that no one could actually live on. Whereas if they buy from the grocery store, they don't know where that money is going. It's going out of the community. It's going to some farm in another country that sprays their flowers like crazy and exploits their workers, right? So not only is it more expensive for us to grow flowers, but our money that we take in from our customers is staying in our community.
00:39:37
Lennie Larkin
So we need to remember these things and not be... kept small and not kept not keeping our prices low because of the naysayers. And there will be naysayers because those people, those nasty people, they're loud.
00:39:51
Lennie Larkin
You know, they like to be heard. They love to tell you that they could buy a bouquet twice as big as yours for half the price at Trader Joe's. And, you know, my new response to them is like, great, could you get me a six pack and some chips while you're there?
00:40:04
Lennie Larkin
Because it's, it's, they don't know. They don't know. And so it's not always up to us to, educate them or convince them. If you want to take that stance, that's wonderful. And in general, we could all be helping our industry by educating the public a little at a time. But if you have someone in your face or on your social media complaining to you about prices, let them, you know what I mean? Let them, let them do that. They don't know about your you and your business.
00:40:30
Lennie Larkin
So in terms of coming up to the question here about what emotional or mindset shifts we need to make, we need to remember that charging adequate prices,
00:40:41
Lennie Larkin
is gonna keep us in business and it's gonna support the good we are trying to do in our community. So listen to yourself, listen to people like Jen, listen to me, listen to the people who have made it in this industry and who know what actually is happening out there with flower farms.
00:41:00
Lennie Larkin
Don't listen to the random complaints from the random cranky woman down the street. She knows nothing about you, she knows nothing about our industry. And she's not the kind of customer you need to connect with to grow your business anyways.
00:41:14
Lennie Larkin
That customer is out there. It's just up to you to start telling your story and connecting with them authentically so that they want to support you.
00:41:25
Jennifer Gulizia
I love that you just said that because i was just about to chime in that when you tell that story and you are authentic, people want to support your story. Like when i I went to the farmer's market this year and did a couple of pop-ups because with our last farm space, we pretty much wholesaled and we had a CSA.
00:41:43
Jennifer Gulizia
But now that we have a bigger space, you and I have talked about this of like, I've got to get my name out there. And to bring people to my farm, I needed to tell the public, Hey, we exist beyond just wholesale.
00:41:53
Lennie Larkin
Yeah.
00:41:54
Jennifer Gulizia
So showing up at the farmer's market, I had been so vocal about our story that so many people stopped and bought bouquets that just said, I've been following your story. I'm so excited. We drive by your new farm.
00:42:07
Jennifer Gulizia
I wanted to buy a bouquet because your flowers are beautiful and I want to support the work that you're doing for this community. So that that's such a true mindset that people, if you tell your story and bring people along on the journey, they wanna support you. But the other thing I noticed at the farmer's market, because I would try, that our farmer's market is neat.
00:42:27
Jennifer Gulizia
Before it opens to the public, the vendors can go and shop each other. so I would walk around and try and support other vendors and buy products. Well, if you look at the cost of vegetables, if you're paying $6 for an heirloom tomato, you can't charge $6 or $5 for a bouquet. I know that, and not I'm not saying all vegetable growers do this, but I did notice there were a few vegetable growers that have like small side bouquets of flowers that are maybe $5 or $10. But it's like, if you pay $6 for a tomato, how long do you get to enjoy that tomato?
00:42:59
Jennifer Gulizia
you enjoy that tomato for what, five minutes while you're maybe eating a BLT sandwich or eating it.
00:43:06
Lennie Larkin
Yeah.
00:43:07
Jennifer Gulizia
But that bouquet of flowers, you're getting at least seven days out of it. You are enjoying that flower. Those flowers are bringing beauty to your table for a week. So if you are selling that experience, I mean, what does a beer cost?
00:43:21
Jennifer Gulizia
A beer, I don't drink beer, but a pint of beer,
00:43:25
Lennie Larkin
Okay. Six bucks.
00:43:26
Jennifer Gulizia
is and six bucks.
00:43:26
Lennie Larkin
I don't know. Probably more than that these days. Nice beer.
00:43:29
Jennifer Gulizia
And if you buy one beer a day, how much money are you spending a week?
00:43:30
Lennie Larkin
Yeah.
00:43:33
Jennifer Gulizia
That's 40 something dollars.
00:43:34
Lennie Larkin
Yeah.
00:43:35
Jennifer Gulizia
So is it really that much to spend $35 on a bouquet of flowers? So I love the mindset that What I was telling myself is what I'm doing matters because I'm bringing joy and beauty to people.
00:43:48
Jennifer Gulizia
And I deserve to be paid a living wage for what I'm doing. And I love, I noticed you use the word and multiple times, but when you think about your mindset and you think about what am I giving to my customer or my client and
00:43:53
Lennie Larkin
Yeah.
00:44:02
Jennifer Gulizia
And how is this benefiting me? That mindset has changed everything for me and thinking, okay, I'm giving them this and my business gets to benefit too for the mindset shift.
00:44:11
Lennie Larkin
yeah
00:44:14
Lennie Larkin
Yes, i love that. And we, you know, it's so interesting. i really wanted to tackle these mindset questions at the Sell Your Flowers Summit.
00:44:26
Lennie Larkin
And so... Our conversation, even over the past five minutes, it reinforced some of the sessions that I created for the summit. And you're you're I'm like excited about it all over again, really genuinely, authentically excited because it's reminding me how important these concepts are.
00:44:46
Lennie Larkin
You know, we we have an amazing marketing coach, Claire Sellers, coming, i think it's probably her first talk ever given for flower farmers, and she's giving a talk on how to keep your eyes on the prize, focus on what you're doing, and not give any of your precious time or attention or bandwidth to that vegetable farmer selling the $5 zineas or that woman down the street selling the $10 bouquets.
00:45:16
Lennie Larkin
Because especially when you're brand new, you can't help but worry about those competitors of yours.
00:45:23
Jennifer Gulizia
Mm-hmm.
00:45:24
Lennie Larkin
I hear this every day, like, Lenny, how can I possibly offer bouquets for $30 when my neighbor sells them for $10? How can I do this when this person's doing this?
00:45:36
Lennie Larkin
But I'm here to tell you, like you listening out there, that farmer is not your problem. You would be so much better to completely forget about them. I mean, I'm all about community. I'm not saying forget about them as a person. Be their friend. That's wonderful. But don't fixate on them.
00:45:54
Lennie Larkin
They are not a problem for your business. You worrying about your competition is such a bigger problem than your actual competition.
00:46:05
Lennie Larkin
And so we have this... talk at the summit about exactly how to do that, how to put your blinders on and focus on what you're doing. And we have another talk, Jen, about how to...
00:46:17
Lennie Larkin
You and I keep referring to like being authentic and connecting to your customer base and your followers. We have a talk from a flower farmer of exactly how to do that. Tasha from Palm Pike, who is so awesome, has such a fun social media. She's 100% herself.
00:46:36
Lennie Larkin
And that's the name of the game. You know, when people hear you have to be authentic on social media, they think that means you need to bare your soul. You need to dance on reels. You need to like show off your kids and, you know, do all these kinds of things that might feel cringy.
00:46:53
Lennie Larkin
Some people love doing those things. and And if that's the case, great. But if that's not you, that's wonderful. You don't have to do any of that. You know, I remember back in, i think it was like 2015,
00:47:06
Lennie Larkin
We were putting on an ASCFG conference and we had Erin Bendikane come to give a talk. And I introduced her for this talk, so I'll never forget it. It was sort of one of our bigger conferences.
00:47:18
Lennie Larkin
And, you know, Erin doesn't do many in-person events, but she gave this talk at the conference and it was, so I think the title was being the face of your business. So I remember, you know, saying here's Erin Vendikian from Floret here to teach us how to be the face of her business.
00:47:31
Lennie Larkin
And she gave this, gave this talk that people have been referring to ever since for the past 10 years. And it went along with sort of the arm load, the classic like Floret arm load shot.
00:47:38
Jennifer Gulizia
wow
00:47:43
Lennie Larkin
yeah. that people have been doing for years. And i'm sure I'm sure people have been taking pictures of themselves with flowers for as long as there's been photography. But that talk really resonated with people and stuck in their brains. And she was there. to you know I think her whole idea behind it was like, connect with your people. It was exactly what we're talking about. Tell them your story.
00:48:03
Lennie Larkin
Put yourself front and center. But I think for a lot of shy people and a lot of nervous people, that idea makes them even more nervous because they think I'm never going to be good at this if I don't feel like myself on camera, if I don't like how I look, if I don't want to show my kids faces, any number of reasons, if I don't want to bare my soul.
00:48:25
Lennie Larkin
But I'm here to tell you, like, that's not what Aaron meant. Aaron didn't mean you need to bare your soul.
00:48:31
Lennie Larkin
We need to do what Tasha is doing. We need to be ourselves on social media and in our email. So if you're funny, lean into being funny. If you're like poetic, be poetic.
00:48:42
Lennie Larkin
If you're a woman of few words, rely more heavily on the photos and keep your your lot you know your captions like short and punchy. There are so many different people out there, customers, potential customers, waiting to connect with you and your farm story, and you never know what's going to resonate with them.
00:49:04
Lennie Larkin
Maybe they love the fact that... Maybe they love your humor. I mean, I'm just relying on my same example, but maybe they love your humor.
00:49:16
Lennie Larkin
Maybe they love seeing your excitement with the first flower from each crop type that blooms every year. Maybe they love seeing how you set up your farm stand in the morning because that gives them ideas for their farm stand.
00:49:31
Lennie Larkin
Maybe they just need like a breath of fresh air in the middle of the day and seeing your beautiful photos without many words on them. gets them through their day or reminds them how beautiful this place they live is if they live close to you. you know There's just so many so many different little feelers we can send out for people to grab onto. So it doesn't mean telling them what you accomplished in therapy yesterday. Again, it doesn't mean telling your most embarrassing stories.
00:50:03
Lennie Larkin
We think of the classic kind of over-sharers that we all know and love to hate on social media. That's not what Erin meant. That's not what I mean. We mean what Tasha is doing.
00:50:15
Lennie Larkin
being yourself, telling your story. And marketing is really all about attraction and like repulsion, right? there's this There's a smoother way of saying that, but not everyone is going to resonate with everything about you or your farm, but they're going to tap into it and remember it if it has personality, if it has you it, you know? So, you know, like linking it back to the summit,
00:50:42
Lennie Larkin
all of the sessions, we have about 15 sessions over the course of three days, And each one of them is solving one of these problems. If you have the problem that you don't know how to be yourself on social media, come to Tasha's session. you know If you have the problem where you don't know how to stop fixating on your competition, come to Claire's talk. If you need real nuts and bolts pricing strategy, come to my pricing strategy talk. you know So everything we're talking about is just so...
00:51:14
Lennie Larkin
It's so painful for new flower farmers. And I'm glad we're talking about it at length, Jen, because it's, I remember that pain. I remember those nerves of like, just wanting to hide behind my flowers.
00:51:25
Lennie Larkin
I didn't want to talk about them because I felt pushy. It felt inauthentic. I didn't want to be the face of my business because I was like, that isn't that self-important of me. Isn't that me want, you know, like saying I want the spotlight. That's not the case at all. You want your flowers to have the spotlight and you want to connect with people. Yeah. Thanks for listening to my, my Ted talk.
00:51:50
Jennifer Gulizia
That was a good one. Well, you've I think you've got a lot of listeners probably excited about this summit. So we've been talking a lot today. Let's spin this here and tell our listeners exactly what the summit is, when it is, and how they can find more information out about it.
00:52:08
Lennie Larkin
Yes, so the Sell Your Flowers Summit, it's November 20th, 21st, 22nd. I was really, really excited to make this conference super accessible for people.
00:52:20
Lennie Larkin
You know, my my courses, my programs, my other programs are really meaty and big. And they're a high price point. You know, a Flower Farming Business Academy, my six-week signature business course, is an investment.
00:52:37
Lennie Larkin
And I've been really happy and proud over the years to make my programs accessible in specific ways. You know, I have a scholarship of 50% off for farmers of color for my big programs.
00:52:51
Lennie Larkin
And I've seen... I don't know if it's 100 farmers yet. Take me up on that over the years, but it's at least in the high tens. I should probably count. I guess maybe approaching 100 flower farmers who have taken my course and used that scholarship.
00:53:05
Lennie Larkin
And I'm looking for ways to create more scholarships and more grants going forward, not just for farmers of color, but for all types of farmers and new farmers. So I wanted to bring that kind of idea of accessibility to this conference. So it's really affordable.
00:53:23
Lennie Larkin
And there are also free tickets. You can't get much more affordable than free, right? So if you wanna come and have access to the sessions during the weekend for 24 hour access for each day, you can come and grab a free ticket.
00:53:37
Lennie Larkin
And then if you want additional resources more hands-on support, bonus sessions, and most importantly, probably lifetime access to the sessions, you can upgrade to an all-access pass.
00:53:51
Lennie Larkin
And there's a few different price points, but they're all under 200 bucks. So the all-access pass is a great way to get worksheets that go along with every session to help you implement them and to give you a bunch of resources going forward and bonuses.
00:54:07
Lennie Larkin
So the summit is really based around community. We have a Facebook group. There's already a few hundred people in there. we you know We're recording this podcast, of course, a few weeks before it will go live.
00:54:17
Lennie Larkin
But in our first day of ticket sales, we already have hundreds and hundreds of people who grabbed tickets and who joined the Facebook group and are already sharing their wins from the past season. We have a secret podcast feed, Jen. i took I took notes from you and your wonderful podcast here of how to be a podcaster. And we have a secret podcast feed going out to people who have signed up for the summit and in fact been on our wait list.
00:54:38
Lennie Larkin
But it's three days of talks. I've shared a few of them with you here today. They are all 20-minute sessions, so that's something really important to me and really different from a lot of conferences that I've both put on in the past and been a speaker at and been an attendee at.
00:54:52
Lennie Larkin
So you're not going to sit there and fall asleep in your chair. You're going to be at home watching these sessions. A lot of them are pre-recorded, wonderful little slideshows with nuance, with direct calls to action, and, you know,
00:55:06
Lennie Larkin
no No long rambling intros, no long rambling overviews. This is exactly what to do to price your flowers, exactly what to do to get ahead of this mindset shift, exactly what to do to start building your email list.
00:55:22
Lennie Larkin
And it's really based on giving you the skills and the confidence to sell more flowers in 2026. Whether you're a few years in, but you've been sort of slacking on the sales and marketing or what you've done hasn't tried or you've been too nervous to try, or whether you haven't even planted a flower yet, planted a seed yet, but you're you've listened to me, you've listened to my calls, you know you need to start thinking about selling those flowers before they're blooming.
00:55:51
Lennie Larkin
So I'm just, I'm like beaming with pride about this summit. I've it's i've not done it alone. i have an amazing partner in this, Angie Machado, who's an email marketing expert and has been a colleague of mine for a few years and is a guest teacher in my program.
00:56:08
Lennie Larkin
and teaches about all sorts of marketing, but she's my summit manager. And so she's my project manager for this. And it's really been a collaborative effort for her to help me get all my ideas out of my brain and into this multi multifaceted three-day event where we're going to you know thousands of attendees. And we have some great sponsors on board as well.
00:56:31
Lennie Larkin
Small Farmworks, Farmer Bailey, your podcast, Jen, your wonderful podcast, The Flower Podcast. There's a few more sponsors coming on as we speak. So we're just, I'm just thrilled to be putting this on. And I think there's no reason not to be there on November twentieth
00:56:50
Jennifer Gulizia
Awesome. And it is all virtual, so you can watch it from the comforts of your home anywhere in the world.
00:56:54
Lennie Larkin
It is all ritual. Exactly. And we'll also be announcing during the summit that I'm launching something new. I'm finally starting, you know, what what they we call these days a membership.
00:57:05
Lennie Larkin
And so I've been doing these coaching groups for a few years now. It's business therapy for flower farmers, small group coaching. But I'm taking that down a notch and adding a more accessible level to that where you can join the B-side membership starting this November.
00:57:20
Lennie Larkin
And every month get specific actionable strategy for me around this stuff, sales, marketing, and we'll have community support and homework and large community sessions where you can get to know other flower farmers and exactly what they're going through. So you'll hear about that at the summit.
00:57:38
Lennie Larkin
I'm just, i I get so many emails and DMs and you know, faxes. No, just kidding. Like every way that you can hear from people, I hear from flower farmers looking for help, looking for support.
00:57:51
Lennie Larkin
And so I want to have something to offer even the flower farmer who's not ready for a big course or who doesn't want to take a big course. Not everyone needs to take a course, but I'm trying to find ways to work with more of the people who reach out to me looking for help.
00:58:06
Lennie Larkin
So I love community. i love supporting my students. I love collaborating with my students. I love hearing from them. And so I'm just really, really proud to be a part of this industry and really grateful. I honestly pinch myself every day to be where I am having built a career where I get to coach flower farmers on what actually will help them build a business that will support them throughout the course of their life.
00:58:38
Jennifer Gulizia
Well, I think it's awesome what you're doing. Most of our listeners know because I talk about it often that I'm a huge believer in personal development. I also heavily believe in courses and online learning.
00:58:50
Jennifer Gulizia
My philosophy is if someone else has already mastered this, why not utilize their knowledge that they're willing to share to help you get to that next level that much faster? And I think that both the marketing, selling, and the mindset piece all go so handin hand in hand.
00:59:07
Jennifer Gulizia
that when you can master those things, you can get to that next level faster. And so for many of the people at your summit, that is mastering, how can I start making money on this thing that I love so much? I mean, for so many of us, we started with a love of flowers and we had to find a way.
00:59:25
Jennifer Gulizia
i just recently attended, I'm part of Brendan Burchard's Mastermind. It's a year long commitment. It's called Ultra. And he said something this month when we were in person in Arizona, he said,
00:59:36
Jennifer Gulizia
You can make money. pretty much anywhere and in a lot of areas, but where do you wanna make money? And once you decide where you wanna make money, then you gotta go hand all in on that and really focus on that one thing. And I think that's what your summit's gonna do for our listeners who wanna get the start is if you've decided you wanna make money in flowers, here's your opportunity to learn from some of the industry's best.
00:59:59
Jennifer Gulizia
So thank you for hosting this. I've got two more questions for you. The first one is for those listening today, that are just starting to dream about selling their flowers. What is one small actionable step they can take this week?
01:00:15
Lennie Larkin
Yeah. This week,
01:00:19
Lennie Larkin
I want you to think back on your year. And, you know, maybe you have sold few bouquets. Maybe you've sold number of bouquets.
01:00:32
Lennie Larkin
Maybe you've just given away a few bouquets. I want you to think of three people who are either... your top customer or who have been most supportive of you and this dream, wherever you are on the road.
01:00:47
Lennie Larkin
And I want you to find a way to thank them. If you still have flowers, if it hasn't totally frosted for you yet, I'd love for you to make each one of them a bouquet. If not, make them a dried flower wreath or make them an evergreen wreath, whatever. give them Package up some saved seeds.
01:01:03
Lennie Larkin
Write them a card and just thank them. This is going to go so long to teaching you how to identify your best customers, your biggest supporters, and nurturing that relationship so that They'll stay with you and then they'll want to tell other people about you. And then you'll know how to spot people like that in the future as well.
01:01:26
Lennie Larkin
And then I also want you to think about one missed opportunity from this year. And so again, if you're if you haven't even started yet, you've got a world of missed opportunities. You haven't tried any of them yet, but maybe one idea of where you're going sell flowers next year, if that's you.
01:01:43
Lennie Larkin
And if you're a few years in, what was one missed opportunity? Did you sell flowers at the coffee shop and every week there were people asking you if they could come do a farm tour? Maybe that's your sign to put together a farm tour for this next season.
01:02:01
Lennie Larkin
Maybe you were all ready to do full service weddings this year and you put the word out and you had a, you know, a sales page for full service weddings on your website, you you didn't get enough traction with that, but you found that you were able to sell out your subscription.
01:02:22
Lennie Larkin
Is there a way that you can replicate your subscription in the next town over, start with the new business? Like what's the low hanging fruit of something you did this year or you... but you didn't do fully, that you could expand on for next year.
01:02:35
Lennie Larkin
And I want you to start paying attention to the data. And data can be a really big word for people. But it just means what what happened. Look at what happened. What went well, what didn't go well, and where are there opportunities for growth in the future?
01:02:50
Jennifer Gulizia
I love that you mentioned the word thankful, which leads me to my well it's my second to last question for you. Because this is airing in November, which is a month of gratitude, I would love to ask you, what is one thing you are grateful for right now.
01:03:05
Lennie Larkin
Ooh, I am grateful. Just thinking about all the speakers at my summit, I'm grateful to all my mentors. You know, I'm grateful to mentors of mine who are speaking at the summit or people who have come up with me or or before me. Mason, you know, Lisa Mason Ziegler, the gardener's workshop.
01:03:23
Lennie Larkin
There's no one listening to this who doesn't know Lisa Mason Ziegler, but she's just wonderful and has been a friend of mine ever since I was on the board of the ASCFG with her.
01:03:26
Jennifer Gulizia
yeah
01:03:32
Lennie Larkin
And then she's been a mentor and a colleague. And we, you know, I teach a course through the Gardener's Workshop now, and she's coming on and giving a talk about kind of leaning into your customers' cultivating deep relationships with your customers. And I'm just grateful for her, her leadership in our industry. Same with Ellen Frost, who's a speaker at my summit, which I'm so excited about. Ellen has really shown us how beautiful this relationship between flower farmer and florist can be.
01:04:05
Lennie Larkin
And she's giving a talk around, pricing, like how to create a really simple pricing menu that reads to your customer as simply as a fast food menu. I just love this concept.
01:04:17
Lennie Larkin
So I'm grateful for them and grateful to Frank and Pamela Arnoski and just all the flower farmers who have been so gracious to me over the years. And as I visited all their farms years ago, as I was building mine,
01:04:32
Lennie Larkin
And starting to realize that i wanted to circle back around to my lifelong love of teaching and really become a teacher and a coach. And as I started to build this educational business, just all these flower farmers, there's just too many too many to name. But the generation ahead of me has just been so gracious.
01:04:55
Lennie Larkin
And i I believe so strongly in community. And i hope that all the new flower farmers out there are, you know, really embracing this attitude of thankfulness to all of our mentors. And then they're finding ways to turn around and be as gracious and generous with the people coming in the door behind them, because there are a lot of us and it's wonderful.
01:05:29
Jennifer Gulizia
I love that. Well, you are one of my mentors and I'm grateful for you and grateful that you are hosting this summit to help all of those who are newer into growing their flowers get a good start in this industry. Because like you said, our competitors are not our other flower farmers.
01:05:45
Jennifer Gulizia
When 80% of our flowers are still imported, that's our true competition. And until we see those numbers start to swing, I don't think that we can say that we're really competing
01:05:51
Lennie Larkin
Yes.
01:05:57
Jennifer Gulizia
with our fellow flower farmers. I just yesterday had Paul Matalucci from Applecore Farm out at my farm and we were walking through my dahlia seedlings and we were talking about, he's like, I'm so booked for the next two years already and in 27, and he goes, do you need some of these dates?
01:06:12
Jennifer Gulizia
I'll start referring people to you. And it's like that community over competition is such a powerful thing in the industry we're in.
01:06:17
Lennie Larkin
yes
01:06:19
Jennifer Gulizia
And so I'm just really grateful to be in an industry that has that mindset that there are so many amazing people like yourself and these other leaders who are pouring into those who are newer.
01:06:32
Jennifer Gulizia
So my final question, Lenny, for you today is, is there anything that I haven't asked you today that you would like to leave our listeners with?
01:06:41
Lennie Larkin
I'd like to just circle back to the people pleaser who's starting a business for the first time. And I really want you out there to to hear my words and hopefully take them to heart you k needing to be strategic and to aim for making a good profit and even a healthy profit 100% is one hundred percent Service to your community.
01:07:12
Lennie Larkin
And the two things aren't two different sides of a coin or like they're not, and they're not opposed in the way you think they're opposed. You building a business around flowers is a wonderful, beautiful thing, and it is serving your community. And in order to continue serving your community, you're gonna need to make it make sense as a business.
01:07:38
Lennie Larkin
And that's not a burden, that's just how it is, and it's fun, it's fun. And you won't feel ready to start marketing and selling.
01:07:50
Lennie Larkin
And if you wait until you feel ready, to start an email list or to announce your farm on social media or to start talking to people about your flowers. If you wait until you're ready, you'll never do it.
01:08:05
Lennie Larkin
The students of mine who have the biggest breakthroughs start taking steps even if they have to close their eyes and hold their nose and just jump in. It will get easier and it's a muscle you need to build and flex.
01:08:19
Lennie Larkin
All this stuff takes practice. So it's time to just to jump in and do this amazing, beautiful work of building ah flower farm.
01:08:31
Jennifer Gulizia
Awesome. Lenny, thanks so much for taking time today to share about some of the tips and advice for those who are wanting to get started with selling their flowers and actually making a profit doing so. We will include show links today for people to find you on social media, your website, and of course, for a link to access tickets to the Sell Your Flowers Summit, which is taking place November twentieth through 22nd.
01:08:58
Lennie Larkin
Yep, exactly.
01:09:00
Jennifer Gulizia
And that's 2025. So if you're listening to this after the summit is taking place, the first inaugural Sell Your Flowers Summit, November 20th through 22nd.
01:09:11
Lennie Larkin
Yes, I'll see you there.
01:09:12
Jennifer Gulizia
they Thanks so much for joining us, Lenny. Have a great day.
01:09:16
Lennie Larkin
Thanks, Jen.