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Ep.77: Flower Farming & Floral Design in Montana: The Flower Hat Story with Julio Freitas
1.2k Plays2 days ago
Have you ever wondered what it really takes to build a creative and meaningful life in the floral world, especially when your journey starts far from where you end up?
In this episode, we are joined by Julio Freitas of The Flower Hat, a Montana-based floral designer and flower farmer whose work has influenced and inspired thousands. Julio shares how he went from hotel management to running a thriving floral design studio and one acre flower farm, and how following small sparks of curiosity eventually led him into a life fueled by creativity and connection.
In Episode 77, you will hear about:
- How Julio found the confidence to step into his future self
- Why saying yes opened unexpected doors in his floral career
- What it takes to grow premium flowers in Montana’s short and intense season
- How weddings, farming, and business growth shaped his mindset
- The importance of letting go, pivoting, and embracing the seasons of life
- Where joy and clarity are leading him next
Julio also shares a personal story about rediscovering what truly matters to him and how tuning into nature, rest, and intention transformed the way he sees his work.
Whether you are a flower farmer, floral designer, or a creative who wants to build a more aligned and fulfilling path, this conversation offers practical wisdom, gentle reminders, and heartfelt insight.
Flowers may be the medium, but this episode is really about growing through every season.
Connect with Julio
Website: https://www.theflowerhat.com
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theflowerhat
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/theflowerhat
Connect with Jennifer, Host of The Backyard Bouquet Podcast:
Website: https://thefloweringfarmhouse.com/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thefloweringfarmhouse/
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Transcript
Intro
Introduction of Giulio Fritas and His Floral Journey
00:02:23
Jennifer Gulizia
Hey, flower friends, welcome back to the Backyard Bouquet podcast, where we dig into the stories, creativity, and the heart behind flower farming and floral design. Today, I'm thrilled to be joined by someone whose work you've likely admired on Instagram or in the pages of bridal magazines, and that is none other than Julio Freitas
00:02:45
Jennifer Gulizia
the creative force behind the flower hat in Bozeman, Montana. What began as a creative outlet has blossomed into a full scale floral design studio and flower farm known for its lush garden inspired arrangements and those iconic armful shots of blooms that have become Julio's signature.
00:03:05
Jennifer Gulizia
From designing with high profile weddings to growing some of the most sought after dahlias and specialty blooms, Julio has built a brand that celebrates both artistry and authenticity.
00:03:18
Jennifer Gulizia
In our conversation today, we're talking about the evolution of the flower hat, how Julio's love for flowers led him from hotel management to farming in Montana, what it takes to grow premium blooms in a short season climate, and how he's built such a strong online community through education, beauty, and joy.
Career Transition and Challenges in Montana
00:03:39
Jennifer Gulizia
Whether you're a floral designer, flower farmer, or simply someone who loves a beautiful bouquet, i think you're going to walk away inspired by Julio's story and the way he's turned passion into purpose.
00:03:51
Jennifer Gulizia
All right. Welcome, Julio. I'm so excited to finally have you here on the podcast.
00:03:58
Julio
Hi, Jen. Oh my God, I'm smiling ear to ear. what an intro. I think we're done. I don't have anything else to add.
00:04:03
Jennifer Gulizia
Okay. oh That's it. No, i was drawn to your story years ago. We were chatting a little bit before we hit the record button. I didn't mention this part.
00:04:15
Jennifer Gulizia
I was telling you how I have heard you on other podcasts throughout the years, but this is our first time actually meeting. But what initially drew me to you on the first time I heard you on a podcast was that you worked in hotel management, which is what I was doing.
00:04:31
Jennifer Gulizia
I was a photographer and working in hotel management when I switched over to flower farming.
00:04:31
Julio
Yes.
00:04:36
Jennifer Gulizia
So I love that similarity that we both have there.
00:04:40
Julio
I love the little Venn diagram of of hospitality. I didn't know that.
00:04:43
Jennifer Gulizia
Yes. Yes. I didn't mention that earlier. So you are in Montana. What's it like in Montana right now?
00:04:50
Julio
Right now I'm sitting in the shipping warehouse. I shipped the last box of fall bulb sale, from the fall bulb sale. The weather is gloomy.
00:05:03
Julio
i just want to be curled up on a couch with a cup of tea.
00:05:08
Julio
Dahlias have been dug up. The farm has been put to sleep. The last bulbs went in the ground, and I think I'm ready for a break. And I'm excited to be here, and this is my last commitment, and then I can enjoy some time up
00:05:23
Jennifer Gulizia
That's amazing. I'm envious. I'm just now starting to dig my dahlias. So you have a great head start on me. How does it feel to be all done?
00:05:29
Julio
You got this. It feels great. I think it was an incredible season. It was a really beautiful summer season for weddings. The farm was probably like one of the best seasons we had for dahlias this year.
00:05:43
Julio
Last year, it wasn't so great. So this year felt really good to have them back again. And I've just kind of like closing the season with this like great sense of accomplishment. The fall bulb sale was so incredible, like the most amazing customers that I could possibly ask for.
00:05:58
Julio
We sold out most of the things that I had and whatever we didn't sell, I'm going plan on planting. And i don't really have any complaints, really. like
00:06:06
Jennifer Gulizia
That's amazing. Well, you sound so happy. You're like exuding this happiness and maybe it's because you do get to rest after this.
00:06:13
Julio
Yes, it is.
From Brazil to Montana: Life, College, and Career Path
00:06:14
Jennifer Gulizia
So for those who don't know your full story and who are just hearing about you for the first time today, can you share how your flower business and floral business, the flower hat came to life?
00:06:28
Julio
Yeah, of course. I wanted to say, first of all, thank you for having me. This is so fun. I'm so excited to be here. I'm so excited that we're doing this. I love that there is video.
00:06:39
Julio
I love seeing who I'm talking to. So this is really fun. For those of you who don't know me, my name is Julio. It is not Julio, it is Julio Freitas. I am originally from Brazil.
00:06:52
Julio
I do not speak any Spanish at all, but I do speak Portuguese and that's why the pronunciation of the J is a hard J. I moved here, I attended college in Montana. I moved from Brazil to Montana, I attended college and i was in this hospital. I finished college and then I needed an internship and i got this job at this hotel and i was a sales intern.
00:07:21
Julio
Jen, I never had imagined that I was going to work at a hotel. it was never on my radar. I always thought that I was going to work at a bank and be a bank manager. And i was at that hotel for seven years and the the the need to do something creative was kind of really eating at me. And love the hospitality world. I loved what it taught me. it taught me so much about customer service, dealing with people, dealing with employees.
00:07:49
Julio
The corporate world, there is... There's quite a few things that I took away with me, like as far as running the business that I applied to owning a small business. But ultimately at the end of the day, I felt like I was going after being promoted and going up the ladder.
00:08:06
Julio
And it just felt like I was going towards something that was just going to keep eating at me more and more. And it was just going to be more and more demanding. And I say this and people are like, okay, whatever, don't say that, but I've never worked for money.
00:08:22
Julio
And I felt like that's what I was doing. and Like, I've always felt like I was working to produce something. I was working to
Discovering a Passion for Flowers
00:08:28
Julio
help people. I was working to be beneficial to my community. I was working to leave a mark on this world and the money just kind of follow that.
00:08:37
Julio
And that has been my prerogative from the beginning. And i just didn't feel like the corporate world was for me anymore. And i was very thankful for the opportunity to work at that hotel.
00:08:48
Julio
And I loved my owners. I loved the management company that I worked for. My employees were amazing. i just got bored. i just really felt like I wanted to explore my creativity more. Like I have such a big background with teaching teaching.
00:09:03
Julio
This is gonna sound really silly, but I used to paint when I was a teenager. a used to paint fabric, which is a really big thing in Brazil. And I'm really gonna, like, I have this big plan that I'm gonna try to make it a thing here. And then I left all of that world behind when I moved to the US and I went into college and then education for, you know, college education and working at a corporate hotel. And like, I wanted to go back to what my roots were, which was really like working with my hands and creating,
00:09:33
Julio
creating beauty, if you will. And i i got into flowers. it's it it It was just so serendipitous. like and I never meant to get into flowers either, but it just kind of happened and here I am.
00:09:50
Jennifer Gulizia
I love that. Well, you know, it's funny, we maybe have more coincidences. Coincidences, am I saying that right?
00:09:56
Julio
Yeah, sure.
00:09:56
Jennifer Gulizia
Similarities.
00:09:57
Julio
Yes.
00:09:57
Jennifer Gulizia
I actually went from being a bank manager to working as a sales manager for a hotel while I was launching my photography business.
00:10:04
Julio
I almost hit my water.
00:10:06
Jennifer Gulizia
So yes, because the banking was so black and white that I i was craving that creativity.
00:10:06
Julio
I love that.
00:10:12
Julio
Yep.
00:10:13
Jennifer Gulizia
and then for a while i got to build a whole sales there was no sales team for the boutique hotel that i went to work for so it was really fun building it but then once there was no more creativity and it was all automated i was like i need something else so yes and i love that i think that i can see the connection having worked in the industry so many people that work in hospitality do so because they want to serve people they want to create an experience
00:10:21
Julio
Yeah.
00:10:26
Julio
Yeah. I need the challenge. Yeah.
00:10:39
Julio
he
00:10:39
Jennifer Gulizia
So I imagine a lot of that has carried over into your floral business.
00:10:45
Julio
Yeah, and I think it's kind of like a hotel stay when, and I was front office manager, so I dealt with all the problems, with all the complaints, like that all came to me, and I started to realize that the guests would come, they would stay one night, and that was the only night they had. Yes, they would come back.
00:11:06
Julio
We had some incredible regulars, as we call them, but That night, like we couldn't do that night again. you know
00:11:15
Jennifer Gulizia
Right.
00:11:15
Julio
If they had a bad experience, yes, I can give them a free stay the the next night, but recovering from that one night, like we tried to do really proactive work to make sure that every night was perfect.
00:11:28
Julio
And I think in weddings is the same thing. we only get one chance that bride is going to walk down the aisle one time. we Yes, we can grow dahlias every season, but especially here, like our seasons are so short. So the more proactive I can be to make sure that those dahlias have the best chance of thriving on my farm, the more legwork that we do upfront, the better chances of those flowers succeeding.
00:11:54
Julio
So it kind of overlaps with the of the like the idea that you get this one chance. And it sounds really fleeting, but at the same time, it just kind of gives you an idea that if you try to think a little bit forward and if you try to think of the outcome that you're trying to have, you can do a lot of work upfront to make sure that you have the result that you're looking for.
00:12:16
Jennifer Gulizia
I love that. That's such great advice.
00:12:18
Julio
Yeah. yeah
00:12:19
Jennifer Gulizia
Okay, my mind is s spinning with questions right now. But let's first transition from being in the hotel industry to switching over to a career in florals.
Building a Floral Design Business from Scratch
00:12:30
Jennifer Gulizia
What was the moment that you said, this is my calling, this is what I'm supposed to go do?
00:12:36
Julio
There was a moment, like there was a time. So the way I started doing flowers was I was still working at the hotel.
00:12:47
Julio
And with the fact that I was a little bored, I started decorating the hotel. And I had a very small budget to decorate, but I would decorate for the seasons. I would do a floral arrangement on the big like entry table. I would do a seasonal arrangement on that table with silk flowers so they would last for the whole season.
00:13:09
Julio
I started decorating the ballroom for Christmas. I started doing floral arrangements for the centerpieces for the ballroom when we had events. like Sometimes they wanted flowers on the tables and I would do them as like a side hustle, I guess.
00:13:23
Julio
But it just started very organically. i i had the confidence to say, i can do this. I can do the flowers for the hotel lobby because I was just really bored and I really wanted to explore being creative.
00:13:34
Julio
So that confidence of just testing the waters, like starting really, really small in a very safe space, really allowed me to step forward and offer my services as a floral designer to a coffee shop that was in my neighborhood.
00:13:51
Julio
And i remember walking in with all the confidence and thought, I can do this. So the first week that they opened, they had this really beautiful floral arrangement on the entry entry table. And I thought, this is just like a hotel. Like you walk in, there's this big floral arrangement to welcome you.
00:14:05
Julio
So then I went back the following week, the flowers were not there. And i left, I got my coffee and I left. And then i got in my car and I thought, wait a minute. um'm I'm doing this already. I can easily just do the same thing here, not realizing that I was doing silk flowers versus so cut flowers, fresh flowers.
00:14:25
Julio
So I walked back in and I asked for the owner. And i remember the the cash the cashier was really scared because I asked to speak with the owner and I had just left. And I said, no, everything is perfect. The coffee is great. I just wanted to speak about an opportunity.
00:14:39
Julio
So I started doing flowers for that coffee shop. And it was really eye-opening experience. And i think just going from the hotel to that was a good stepping stone, but it was already a really big stepping stone because again, I'm going from silk flowers to fresh flowers.
00:14:57
Julio
But I did my absolute best to make sure that I was... listening to what the arrangement was telling me every time, every week that I went in to set it up, I was looking at the arrangement that I had set up the week before. So like what happened? Which flowers lasted the longest? Which flowers did not last?
00:15:14
Julio
How are the water levels? Because that helped me pick the vases that would hold the most amount of water.
00:15:19
Jennifer Gulizia
Oh
00:15:19
Julio
It was a very small bakery and they were open from 4 a.m. to 10 p.m. running ovens in a very small space. I remember I did one arrangement of dahlias that lasted literally half a day. They did not like it in there.
00:15:29
Jennifer Gulizia
oh no
00:15:33
Julio
But that's that was the beginning of the, not the flower hat, but that was the beginning of my flower career. And I would have little business cards in front of the arrangement. Like there was a little card holder and I'll put 20 business cards in there every week.
00:15:51
Julio
And every week that I went back to refresh the arrangement, would count the cards to see how many cards went out the door. And most of the times, it was like 10, 15 cards going out the door every week. And I started getting calls to do weddings and I started getting calls to do local deliveries.
00:16:06
Julio
And at that time, I said yes to everything because I needed to get the experience of what it was like running around town to deliver flowers.
00:16:18
Julio
I needed to figure out weddings. So my first wedding was December 26th, 2013, I believe. It was like,
00:16:25
Jennifer Gulizia
Oh, wow.
00:16:25
Julio
but was like it was like
00:16:25
Jennifer Gulizia
You've been doing this for a while.
00:16:27
Julio
It's been 14 years. Yes, I started the coffee shop in 2011. And then the first wedding was a couple years later in 2013. And it was just roses, but it was like it was an incredible couple. And I still remember the bride. And then I did her sister's wedding a couple of years later. And they're so kind and so amazing humans.
00:16:49
Julio
And anyway, so that propelled me to start looking at my business that wasn't even existing at that time, but it allowed me to explore different options.
00:16:59
Julio
And I realized very quickly that I had to figure out how to make the deliveries work because that's what people are asking me to do. So I made it work and it was hustling. When I say hustling, it means I had one hour lunch break and I had to run to my house, pick up those flowers, go deliver them and then come back to work.
00:17:21
Jennifer Gulizia
Oh, wow.
00:17:21
Julio
but hustling. I made no money because all I was doing was spending money on gas. But then I was trying to schedule sometimes deliveries after work where I could go home, pick up the flowers and go deliver them.
00:17:33
Julio
But all of that got me to where I am today because I needed my full-time job to pay the bills because I needed both. I needed one to explore my creativity and start to see this as a business opportunity. But then I also needed the cushion of my full-time job to help pay the bills until I got my way out of the corporate world.
00:17:56
Julio
It was, it was a lot.
00:17:56
Jennifer Gulizia
i That's an amazing story. One thing really stood out to me that you just shared. You shared when you went to that first coffee shop, you walked in with confidence.
00:18:09
Jennifer Gulizia
How did you develop that confidence? what What inside of you? I think so many people like see an idea or an opportunity like that, but they freeze because they're scared.
00:18:16
Julio
who
00:18:17
Jennifer Gulizia
How did you have that confidence?
00:18:20
Julio
I'll figure it out. That was what I thought.
00:18:23
Jennifer Gulizia
That's That was your mindset.
00:18:24
Julio
a i i I have such, this is going to sound so silly to say, but I will never let myself fail. And I will figure it out and I will pivot and I will change and I will change course and I will figure this out because I'm smart enough to figure it out.
00:18:43
Julio
But walking in and saying, hi my name is Julio, I'm a floral designer. That's what I needed to say to her to sell the product. If I said, I love working with flowers, like that's a different.
00:18:58
Julio
I love flowers, that's different. like But if I say, I'm a floral designer, tells her, I'm a professional and i would love to work with you.
00:19:06
Julio
depending on how you worded and how... I was not a floral designer at that point. I was actually just really a flower lover trying to figure out how to make this work. But that that confidence, walking into a room and believing in your own words, that was that was my future self talking to my past self, saying, you're going to do this, so you might as well just own it now that you are the professional.
00:19:31
Julio
And I said, okay, yeah, sure. But it like it's all in a split second.
00:19:35
Jennifer Gulizia
I love that so much. The future self, like every, I'm big on personal development books. You don't know me very well yet, but I devour this kind of stuff.
00:19:41
Julio
yeah I love it.
00:19:44
Jennifer Gulizia
And that mindset of saying, instead of, I can't do this, you're like, this is, I'm going to embody that future self.
Experiential Learning and Overcoming Challenges
00:19:53
Jennifer Gulizia
And you literally created the opportunity for yourself because you had that belief in yourself.
00:19:54
Julio
he
00:19:58
Jennifer Gulizia
I think that's really incredible. i think a lot of people are so fearful that they are afraid to step into that future self.
00:20:00
Julio
Yeah.
00:20:05
Jennifer Gulizia
So I think that's amazing because look at all of the pathways. You didn't know how you were going to get to here, but that first step lets you figure out the next step.
00:20:10
Julio
Right.
00:20:14
Jennifer Gulizia
so
00:20:45
Julio
and you say, i don't think I'm ready yet because I have so much to learn. I'm here to tell you, you're never gonna feel ready. If you're just gonna wait for the perfect moment that one day you're going to wake up and say, I think I'm ready to be a flower farmer.
00:21:00
Julio
You are going to learn so much just by putting the seed in the ground. And you're going to encounter so many, there's just so many singular scenarios that are going to happen to you and to you only about your soil, about your climate, about your business, about your market, no matter how much you research, you're still not going to be ready for all the things that are going to come your way.
00:21:25
Julio
And you're just going to figure it out because we all have the ability to do it. And I think when you walk in to any endeavor and you say to yourself, I have no idea what I'm doing, but it's going to be fun and I'm going to figure it out when i have an obstacle.
00:21:41
Julio
That's what's going to get you forward. But if you spend, i think I think there's definitely a time and a space to do your research, to educate yourself, but just get yourself out there. It's going to be fine.
00:21:53
Jennifer Gulizia
I love that. and Just that little mantra for yourself of like the way you speak to yourself. This year, I started before I get out of bed. I think it was Mel Robbins that suggested this, that before you ever step foot out of bed, you say, it's going to be a great day.
00:22:08
Jennifer Gulizia
So like the first thing now when I wake up that goes through my mind is I say, today's going to be a great day.
00:22:09
Julio
Yeah.
00:22:13
Jennifer Gulizia
And then I climb out of bed.
00:22:13
Julio
Yeah.
00:22:14
Jennifer Gulizia
No idea what's going to come out of day, but I'm going to approach it with the mindset that it's going to be a great day.
00:22:17
Julio
Yeah.
00:22:20
Jennifer Gulizia
And I love that because you did that same thing.
00:22:20
Julio
um yeah I'm currently working on her five-second rule. It's a five-second rule? You count to five and you just go and do it.
00:22:29
Jennifer Gulizia
Oh, I like that.
00:22:30
Julio
Yeah.
00:22:30
Jennifer Gulizia
I don't think I know that one yet.
00:22:31
Julio
Yeah. Oh, she's great. I love her.
00:22:34
Jennifer Gulizia
Yes, she's awesome.
00:22:35
Julio
yeah
00:22:36
Jennifer Gulizia
Then you said but you said yes to everything. It reminds me of last year. Well, actually, excuse me. Yeah, no, I'm so messed up on my dates. it's twenty twenty five It's 2025. In 2024, when we were in transition before we found our new farm,
00:22:53
Jennifer Gulizia
i This is when I really dove into personal development. I started reading a bunch of books. I read Shonda Rhimes' book, The Year of Yes.
00:23:00
Julio
dying to read that book.
00:23:00
Jennifer Gulizia
And she it's so good. She said yes to everything. And it was like, okay, if you just start saying yes to these opportunities, it's that taking that next step of what you did.
00:23:10
Jennifer Gulizia
like
00:23:10
Julio
Mm-hmm.
00:23:11
Jennifer Gulizia
One thing led to another, to another. So I'm dying to know, how did you transition from silk flowers to saying yes to these living flowers to all of a sudden growing your own flowers. Take us along on your journey.
00:23:26
Julio
Oh gosh okay so we know how the silk flowers happened, so then I moved I did the the bakery job for. five years, I would say.
00:23:39
Julio
and it was just such a fun job. The owner of the bakery said, if you're not having fun, don't do it. And I said, I'm having fun every week that I am here. And it it was just so amazing to have somebody that trusted me. So shout out to Joni. Joni is amazing.
00:23:55
Julio
She really just believed in me and in my ability to create these really beautiful floral arrangements. And every now and then, I would just kind of sit in the corner, like, cause I obviously still went to the bakery and I would just sit in the corner and see people's reaction when they walked in, because what I was doing was not, like a mixed bouquet in a interface. I was really inspired by, the florists in London that were doing floral designs for the fancy hotels in London.
00:24:23
Julio
When I found, Ken Martin was the name of this florist. And when I found his designs, I was i I thought to myself, I found it.
00:24:33
Julio
This is my thing. And I was so inspired by what he was doing. And I thought, I want to practice this. And then i started doing that. Somehow, whatever I was doing, it was like large number of vases. So it was a bit like maybe a 36 inch table.
00:24:49
Julio
And I was putting so many vases on that table because my budget for flowers wasn't really... big, but I was trying to stretch it as much as I could. So I remember very vividly, one of the arrangements I made was just wine bottles that I got from the bakery because they sold wine and had events.
00:25:06
Julio
I asked them to keep all the vases, all the bottles of wine for me, but I said, they all have to be the same. I can't just have a mismatch because there's reason for it.
Design Inspiration and Flower Farming
00:25:16
Julio
there is a reason for it Anyway, so I just put one stem of Ostromaria in each vase, but like I crossed them at a middle point, and I just created this lattice with Ostromarias that are fairly inexpensive, but it created such a visual when they were all fully open, and it lasted a whole week. And people weren't seeing that. People weren't exposed to that kind of floral design at the time. So like it really, I'm not going to say set me apart. I was just trying to do something different than every other florist was doing.
00:25:46
Julio
But then i moved I moved to Bozeman where I am now. So all of this happened in Billings, which is two hours east of here.
00:25:52
Jennifer Gulizia
Okay.
00:25:53
Julio
And then then I moved here to Bozeman with my ex-partner. And i i started just doing weddings and i started getting a lot of inspiration images this is around like 2016 now, 2017, probably 2016 actually, I started getting a lot of inspiration images of really delicate flowers, really delicate arrangements. And like thinking Ariella Shazar, Siren Floral, Sarah Windward, Heart Floral, all of these like really intricate designs that weren't a rose stock hydrangeas.
00:26:31
Julio
And i would send those photos back to my wholesaler and I would say, what can you source from this? And then he would say something and like, I don't know about these little tiny flowers, but I can give you some spray carnations.
00:26:45
Julio
I cannot give you these really big zinnias, but I can give you some gerb daisies. And I kept thinking that's not, that's so far from what I'm trying to do here because I really thought that the arrangements were really beautiful and I just, I just didn't have a source for those flowers.
00:27:01
Julio
So, 20, probably 15, maybe, is when I learned that you could grow your own flowers. And I thought, well, there's nothing I can grow here. I'm in Montana. Nothing will grow here.
00:27:14
Julio
But then the same thing. i thought, I'm going to get to it. There's a little tiny rocky plot in the back of the studio. I thought, I'm just going to put some things in the ground, and it's going to work out.
00:27:24
Julio
And if it doesn't work out, I'll try to figure out why it didn't work out, and I'll move on from there. So that first year, i grew dahlias, anemones and zinnias, not knowing that you don't grow anemones and dahlias and zinnias in the same, but I didn't know and I was just trying to figure it all out.
00:27:42
Jennifer Gulizia
Aha.
00:27:42
Julio
And they all grew, they all grew fine, they all grew great. And I mean, as great as great could be considering that I had no idea about soil preparation, watering, fertilizing, I knew none of that.
00:27:53
Julio
And that's when I started diving into the local flowers because that's what I realized. All those florists had access to farms that were around them, and that's where they were gar and getting their flowers. And I thought the same thing that I thought about the floral design job for the bakery, I thought I can be a flower farmer. I'm going to be a flower farmer. I can grow my own flowers.
00:28:15
Julio
So I started with a little tiny plot, and then I moved to raised beds, and then I moved to a bigger field, and then I I leased land for two years to expand the production and it just kept growing. and and And I think that's when the flower hat became what I am known for today, which is basically importing flowers that are really beautiful and really special and complementing those flowers with the local flowers that I grow.
00:28:42
Julio
And now there is such a network of flower farmers around me. Not only can I grow my own flowers and support my own business, I can also support their businesses as well, because this community is amazing and we're so connected and we have the ability to, at least the growers that I communicate with, I kind of have the ability to talk to them and say, what are you growing this season? What can I expect from your,
00:29:06
Julio
price list this year, and then I go in an entirely different direction and I grow something that's really unique, really different, that they are not growing so I can have both the best of both worlds. Because if we're all growing the same things, if we're all growing the same snapdragons, if we're all growing the same zinnias, then the market is too saturated and we just don't have enough room to move all these flowers.
00:29:27
Julio
and i i just i just I just wanted to grow the interesting stuff. I just wanted to grow the really textural pods and grasses, the really intricate colors of scabiosa's perennials like that are not necessarily popular, but they make for really great cut flowers for events because they only need to last I don't know, two days, three days, the short flowers that don't necessarily sell as cut flowers because the stems are too short.
00:29:59
Julio
But I also don't care because I'm tucking them into centerpieces. So stem length has never been an issue for me. That's why i love pansies because they're not really tall. But I also don't care because they're going to make really cute butt faces.
00:30:10
Julio
So like I started really focusing on what I was trying to create and work it backwards from there to see how i what I could grow based on the seeds that were available.
00:30:22
Julio
And I think it's been a really fun experience to see, you know, like there's nothing, i don't know, i feel like it's Christmas every day, like when you receive this really big shipment of flowers from Holland.
00:30:32
Julio
I love ordering from Holland. I think they have some of like some amazing product. It truly doesn't compare to local flowers when you have a bunch of Lysianthus from some of the best growers in Holland versus a bunch of Lysianthus from the local growers.
00:30:46
Julio
They don't even compare. like By far, the local market has always had better quality, better product, better colors. But in the winter, when I can't grow anything, and sometimes I just need too much volume. I need 5,000 stems of Playa Blanca roses.
00:31:03
Julio
I need to order those from somewhere. But then coordinating that with what I can grow from the farm, you know, like right now I'm about to start going to crop planning.
00:31:05
Jennifer Gulizia
while
00:31:11
Julio
I can start looking into the weddings that I have. I already know what I can order from anywhere in the world. That part is not a problem. But once I start planning the farm, then i can start manipulating what my recipes are going to look like to make sure that I am including flowers from the farm.
00:31:29
Julio
Dahlias, for example, you know, you order dahlias from a wholesaler. They're not the best and you don't know when they were cut. And then the day before the wedding, they just shed all over. And you're like, well, that was my focal flower. There it goes where I can go to the farm and I can cut them today and use them tomorrow in my arrangement. and They're going to be absolutely beautiful. So It's a balancing game to figure out what I can grow in this climate versus what I want to grow because it's really beautiful and goes with my design versus what I can order in versus what I can support local flower farmers with.
00:32:04
Jennifer Gulizia
So that's really amazing. I love how you explained everything, especially how you work everything backwards. Instead of saying, I want to grow this and I'm going to figure out how to use it all together.
00:32:11
Julio
Mm-hmm.
00:32:15
Jennifer Gulizia
You have a recipe and you figure out what's what's missing based on what you can get outside, whether that's from other local farmers or the wholesale.
00:32:21
Julio
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
Planning and Sourcing for Floral Designs
00:32:25
Jennifer Gulizia
And then you figure out, okay, this is what I want to grow, or this is what I need to grow. I loved the part though, that now you are able to grow what brings you joy and what excites you, those little grasses and textural pieces, because you can source everything else and you've done the homework and you've done the steps and you have such a great system, you now have the fun part of just growing what brings you joy.
00:32:41
Julio
who
00:32:50
Jennifer Gulizia
Is that right?
00:32:51
Julio
Yeah, and and I will always say my favorite flower to grow is sanghisorba. No one really knows what it is. It's a weird name. It doesn't have a common name.
00:33:02
Julio
I think you can call it grape burnet, but I don't think that that's the same. But I love sanghisorba. I have such a history with it. It blooms on my birthday every year, which is July 1st.
00:33:13
Julio
i It was gifted to me from a dear friend, Jen, also Jen from Field Day Creative. i I love that flower, but it's really hard to find. For sure, I cannot find it at any of my local wholesalers, but I just love growing it. And I think a lot of people have loved it, that I've showed it to them. They're like, what is this?
00:33:32
Julio
It's a really fun experience. It's really fun to walk out on a farm, and at least to me, when I see the flowers that I grow. And they're not you not big blooms. I don't really have peonies, for example. Like, I don't grow peonies.
00:33:48
Julio
I have very short, I only have one acre to grow on. And I'm just trying to switch a lot of that towards a lot of fillers, a lot of foliages. Dahlia is probably like 40% of it.
00:34:01
Julio
So it's just really it's just really interesting to see what my capabilities are within this one acre. But the the feeling of walking out in a field and seeing like, ooh, I have flocks today, I have feather top grass, I have bunny tail grass, I have oregano, all these things that are not really popular, no one really likes them.
00:34:21
Julio
but they make the arrangement so special. you know Like up here, for example, a lot of destination weddings happen here. So there's such a need for what they would consider wild flowers for rehearsal dinners, for example.
00:34:35
Julio
The rehearsal dinners here are usually very casual. It's usually a barbecue and a kind of Western. So for that, I like to have flowers from the farm that are grasses, pods, a lot of larks, a lot of snapdragons, a lot of like colorful bright.
00:34:51
Julio
But At the same time, i need I have a wedding the following day that needs to be really lush and really beautiful. So I really want to have dahlias for that. I want to have really specialty foliages like raspberries and blackberries and nine barks.
00:35:05
Julio
I don't know. It's just really fun to be able to see your calendar for the following year's event and be able to plan your garden based on that.
00:35:14
Jennifer Gulizia
So you are probably just about to start planning for 2026.
00:35:19
Julio
Yes.
00:35:20
Jennifer Gulizia
How many weddings are you doing next year?
00:35:23
Julio
Oh, I haven't counted yet, but it's full. The calendar is full. I think I only have one weekend that's available, and I think I want to close that weekend off and not take on any weddings. But yeah, it's looking pretty to busy.
00:35:36
Jennifer Gulizia
That's fantastic. So when does your season start?
00:35:40
Julio
Okay, so that's a great question because I always have freelancers come help me. And it's kind of funny because a lot of them are in the South or East Coast, and they have a very slow summer because it's so hot. People don't get married outside in the summer.
00:35:55
Julio
But here, our season starts in June, and it really picks up in like the last weekend in June, like a until probably the first weekend in September after Labor Day weekend, that like that june that late June, July, and August are in insanely busy, and then a little bit in September. And then after that, you kind of run the risk of having snow on your wedding.
00:36:19
Julio
Could happen.
00:36:20
Jennifer Gulizia
Snow in September.
00:36:21
Julio
Yes, it could happen.
00:36:22
Jennifer Gulizia
oh my gosh.
00:36:23
Julio
It has happened before. We've had a frost on 4th of July one year.
00:36:28
Jennifer Gulizia
No. oh wow.
00:36:31
Julio
That was the year that I i bent myself enough hoops for 20 flower beds. And you know how those little tunnels can get out of hand so quickly. So was like 20 beds times 14 hoops per bed. bent every single one of them by myself like a madman trying to cover them all.
00:36:50
Julio
But we saved them. But we did get a frost on 4th of July one year.
00:36:54
Jennifer Gulizia
Oh, that's amazing that you were able to save them.
00:36:55
Julio
yeah yeah Yeah, it was fun.
00:36:58
Jennifer Gulizia
i
00:36:59
Julio
Not really,
00:36:59
Jennifer Gulizia
I wholesale flowers for weddings and we don't take weddings after or anything. We don't commit to anything after the first weekend of October because that's usually about when our frost comes. But this year it's crazy.
00:37:10
Jennifer Gulizia
I mean, I still have flowers, but they they've been kissed by light frost enough that there's nothing sellable in the field at this point.
00:37:16
Julio
yeah
00:37:17
Jennifer Gulizia
But normally my field is totally brown and I'm like, there's still green left this year. I'm ready to put it to bed.
00:37:24
Julio
Yes, so some some years you really just want a frost to come and do its thing so you can rest, but some years they drag.
00:37:34
Julio
Last year was probably the latest frost we had. I remember harvesting dahlias around 17th of October last year, and we still had dahlias.
00:37:43
Jennifer Gulizia
Okay.
00:37:43
Julio
This year it was it was much earlier.
00:37:46
Jennifer Gulizia
We had a really early frost on, I think it was October fourth and it it didn't damage the plants enough, so i got more buds after that, but I should have just put everything to sleep because October was beautiful this year.
00:37:56
Julio
Uh-huh.
00:38:00
Jennifer Gulizia
It was dry every day and sunny, and now November has hit and it's like an inch of rain a day, which we never normally get.
00:38:07
Julio
Oh my gosh.
00:38:08
Jennifer Gulizia
We get rain, but not like this.
00:38:10
Julio
Right.
00:38:10
Jennifer Gulizia
And our new soil is just like become clay. I'm going, what was I thinking?
00:38:14
Julio
Oh no.
00:38:14
Jennifer Gulizia
This is my poor planning of trying to enjoy them for too long.
00:38:18
Julio
Yeah, I have promised myself that I will not do the sprinkler system ever again. I have to just, I just learned to let it go. I think that was one of the biggest lessons I've learned in flower farming is sometimes you just have to let things go. Life is too short.
00:38:34
Julio
Just let them go. i have tried to save, I have done some crazy things to try to save dahlias from frost. And eventually you just learn. I'll see you next year.
00:38:45
Jennifer Gulizia
You know, I think that video made you famous when you did that on Instagram a few years ago. And for people who are listening, who are going, what are you guys talking about? Do you want to explain what what you're referencing here?
00:38:56
Jennifer Gulizia
What did you do that year? Yeah.
00:38:57
Julio
the the The sprinkler method.
00:38:59
Julio
So I learned this from like going to conferences that you can you can set up sprinklers and you run your sprinkler about like one to two hours before a frost hits, which is usually like that first hour in the morning, like around five or six or 7 a.m. m So you have to get up in the middle of the night and you have to turn these sprinklers on.
00:39:24
Julio
So the sprinkler sprays water on all your plants and like the field is fairly big and there wasn't enough pressure to have all the sprinklers running at the same time.
00:39:36
Julio
So like I'm trying to rotate them in the middle of the night and in the middle of the night, literally me like three in the morning, I'm out there like trying to rotate which one gets watered now.
00:39:39
Jennifer Gulizia
Oh gosh.
00:39:44
Julio
And the idea is that the water. the plants are drenched in water and then as the frost arrives, it freezes the water outside the plant and it protects the plant inside the ice, which works. It works great. That's usually what they do in vineyards. if Sometimes they have really big fans, like you you guys have vineyards around you.
00:40:07
Julio
They usually have like a really big fan or they do a misting system. Well, I didn't have a misting system. I just had a sprinkler. The problem is there's too much water. So the plants get really heavy.
00:40:20
Julio
And in in the process of the ice freezing, the plants get too heavy for themselves and then they fall over. So you wake up the next morning, plants are fine, but they are all over the ground.
00:40:28
Jennifer Gulizia
Mm-hmm.
00:40:35
Julio
And then usually that happens but like when you have that one fateful night that has a frost and then the the weather is clear after that. then the plants start to grow again. And then all the plants that fell, they start growing.
00:40:49
Julio
The stems start going towards the light. So you get these really wonky stems. The flowers are all over your pathways. Everything is wet. It's muddy all the time. It is just such a nightmare. And it's,
00:41:02
Julio
Yes, you can find a corralling system. And yes, you can find a way to support your flowers. And I think that would be really helpful. It's just that the scale, like we produce 6,100 plants every year. At that scale, it was just too much for us to do and manage.
Lessons Learned in Flower Farming
00:41:16
Julio
And after that, I think I did that for two or three years in a row. And then after the last time, I said, I'm done. I'm not doing this anymore.
00:41:24
Jennifer Gulizia
That sounds like so much work.
00:41:24
Julio
But it's a very... Yeah, it's a very interesting technique that does work. it You just have to be more prepared for it than I probably was.
00:41:33
Jennifer Gulizia
I love what you first said when you told us about that though, is that some, and I'm not going to say it exactly like you, but sometimes we try so hard to work mother nature and to get a different outcome than what nature is trying to give us.
00:41:50
Julio
Yes.
00:41:50
Jennifer Gulizia
And I love how you said that sometimes we just have to be willing to let things go.
00:41:54
Julio
Yeah. and And you know why? i think I was listening to Amy Poehler's podcast and she said something like, it's so easy for our brains. You can have a thousand positive things happen, but it's so easy for that one negative thing to just stick in your brain.
00:42:15
Julio
And the like the the thoughts of failure that come with that, thinking, bringing this back to farming, and like all the crops that you failed at.
00:42:25
Julio
I failed at growing zinnias because I had a disease or an issue or the deer came in and ate it, or all my dahlias have so many viruses in them, I don't know what to do.
00:42:37
Julio
I failed with soil prep and i can now, like you said, like all I have is clay and I don't know what I'm doing. But You turn around and there are so many other flowers that are screaming, asking for your attention, saying, look at us, we're thriving over here.
00:42:54
Julio
You barely put any effort into growing us. Like Yarrow, for example, Yarrow is amazing. We have such a hard time celebrating those flowers that are so easy to grow.
00:43:05
Julio
incredibly helpful when it comes to design because we're so focused on the one thing that failed and we sometimes we have such a hard time letting go and that's what i'm saying like i had to learn to let go and i had to learn to embrace all the other things that do really well here considering that the climate is really challenging, the the season is so short.
00:43:26
Julio
I eventually learned that if it was something that required too much attention, too much effort, for example, celosia, for example, I would love to grow celosia.
00:43:38
Julio
I love celosia. I think it's an amazing flower. It's always a talking point because everyone says it looks like a brain. i would love to grow celosia i can't it requires too much i have to put hoops over it i have to net it it's one bloom per stem it's one bloom per flower just let it go you know what grows really well here like i said ero grows really well scabiosas do really well uh echinops grows incredibly well here and yeah it's not a flashy flower but you know what's really helpful to have echinops when i'm doing a wildflower wedding everyone loves a thistle great then you can have this so i have this so all day every day during the summer
00:44:19
Julio
I have have tried really hard to incorporate this into like other aspects of my life too when something is not really going right because there's just so much to be celebrated. And it's just, we just have, as humans, we just have a tendency to be so hard on ourselves.
00:44:33
Julio
And i think it's just, just turn to the left. You're gonna see something that's really incredible and really beautiful and just celebrate that because it's a muscle that you need to exercise.
00:44:47
Julio
And I think the more that you let go of these flowers and crops and, you know, we can even talk about weddings, like wedding models that are not necessarily working for your business.
00:44:58
Julio
There is one that is going to work for your business. You just have to be willing to see it. It's right there. You just have to be willing to see it. and Sometimes it's hard. Sometimes, you know we do again, we do have a tendency to be hard on ourselves, but I think just being having awareness about it and making yourself in that moment and realizing that you're doing it really gets you out of that like negative mindset.
00:45:22
Jennifer Gulizia
I love that mindset, especially this time of year where nature is such a good reminder that, I mean, and don't know about you, but here in the gorge right now, in the Columbia River Gorge where I live,
00:45:28
Julio
Yes.
00:45:33
Jennifer Gulizia
Our new property, our farm, come visit us sometime when your season ends because October is incredible here.
00:45:38
Julio
I would love to. Yes.
00:45:41
Jennifer Gulizia
We back up to the Hood River, which flows into the Columbia River. And then it comes up and there's a swooping hillside and there's orchards on the hillside and then all of these oak trees. So it's like...
00:45:54
Jennifer Gulizia
nature's tapestry of like every fall color you can imagine.
00:45:55
Julio
my gosh. Yeah.
00:45:59
Jennifer Gulizia
And they're now starting to drop their leaves. And the property next to us is a regenerative cow and pig farm.
00:46:04
Julio
oh
00:46:05
Jennifer Gulizia
But before them, it was a organic ornamental nursery.
00:46:06
Julio
Oh, my gosh.
00:46:11
Jennifer Gulizia
So there's like aspen trees and all kinds of trees planted all over the property.
00:46:11
Julio
Yeah.
00:46:15
Jennifer Gulizia
So it's I mean, it's like one of the most beautiful vistas that you can see in all of the gorge. In my opinion, when I look out, I'm just like, look at all these leaves like this show that nature is putting on before it lets go and rest for the season.
00:46:24
Julio
Yeah.
00:46:28
Jennifer Gulizia
So I'm curious.
00:46:28
Julio
Well, you're so lucky. I'm so happy for you that you have that. Mm-hmm.
00:46:32
Jennifer Gulizia
Thank you. i feel really blessed. And I love what you just said there because because I'm on a new farm this year, i have always struggled this summer and I've had to remind myself I consider it.
00:46:43
Jennifer Gulizia
I look at it as like I'm flipping this coin. Like, do I want to see the positive or am I going to dwell on that? Like one thing that's not working out because
00:46:49
Julio
yeah he yeah
00:46:51
Jennifer Gulizia
with a new farm after six years of farming on another area, we had it so dialed in. and but not But now we're starting over from a fallow field and it's like, OK, some things that i I had so easy at the last place,
00:47:06
Jennifer Gulizia
are a huge struggle this year because there's so many unknowns and it's like, it's so easy to dwell on like, oh, I lost that crop. But then it's like, oh my gosh, look at how the zinnias are taller and bigger than I've ever had before.
00:47:20
Julio
Mm-hmm.
00:47:22
Jennifer Gulizia
And look at all the birds that are tucked in them. And it's like, okay, if I just switch that mindset, how
00:47:29
Julio
Mm-hmm.
00:47:30
Jennifer Gulizia
such a difference it can make on your mind and your health and your day. So I love that. Thank you for sharing that.
Personal Growth and Future Plans in Floral Industry
00:47:35
Jennifer Gulizia
I am curious, though, has there ever been a time in your floral career that you've had a hard time letting go of something that you knew shouldn't continue doing?
00:47:36
Julio
Yeah, of course. OK.
00:47:47
Julio
I, yes.
00:47:50
Julio
i mean, I think I'm living in it right now, to be honest. I think i love doing weddings and I love the product and I love
00:48:02
Julio
the freelancers. Can't do it with without my freelancers. I love my clients.
00:48:08
Julio
I have never had a negative experience with a wedding and i i just love doing weddings. I love the product that it creates and I love getting that gallery from the photographer.
00:48:21
Julio
And when you do like these really big productions, like we have done six figure weddings, like multiple six figure weddings. And when you look back and you think, think, I was a poor kid growing up being in Brazil, like in a third world country.
00:48:36
Julio
Sometimes I'm like, I don't belong to doing this, but I do it and I love it and I love getting the photos. And when you think of like how hard that week was and you work with these incredible photographers, like you guys are amazing and we can't do without you.
00:48:51
Julio
And you look back on those photos and you think, wow, I really did that. I designed that. I ordered those flowers. I got in that bride's mind to see what she was seeing.
00:49:04
Julio
i planned this for a year and here it is. Except that it's not sustainable to do that forever. I think that's what I'm living now. I love doing weddings, but what the wedding industry has become and with Pinterest showing you what you have to have in your wedding, it has just become such like need to top the last wedding, it's not sustainable. And when you start realizing where your joy is coming from, it it it becomes it puts it through different perspective.
00:49:45
Julio
This is very personal. I've never shared this with anyone ever, ever, ever. But I went to my energy healer one time and she said, you seem very stressed.
00:49:56
Julio
And I said, I don't know why I'm here today. So we did a session. This is very woo woo. So if you don't believe in any of this, like that's totally fine.
00:50:02
Jennifer Gulizia
Oh, I'm here for it.
00:50:04
Julio
But the listeners are like, oh, my God, what is he about to say? But I remember we were doing a guided meditation because I was so distressed.
00:50:13
Julio
I didn't even know what to ask. And she said, what if we just do a guided meditation? And I said, okay. and I was just there and she guided me through, the meditation of it all. And then all of a sudden I'm like, I'm in my flower field and She says, what do you see? Like what is happening? And I said, it is so loud.
00:50:38
Julio
it is so incredibly loud. She's like, what's loud? And I said, all these plants are screaming at me. And I said, why are they screaming? I said, because they are screaming because I'm not there.
00:50:50
Julio
Like with the wedding industry growing, not the wedding, though our wedding business growing as much as it is, there's obviously no way that I can do all of it by myself.
00:50:50
Jennifer Gulizia
Mm-hmm.
00:50:59
Julio
So I have, you know, we have the farm department and we have the design department. So during the summer, most of my time is dedicated to weddings. Like we try to do a really good job setting up the farm in the spring so we don't have to be out there as much in the summer. So it's more maintenance.
00:51:15
Julio
But the plants were just screaming at me and they're saying, You bought this land. You invested money in this. You put so much sweat and tears into this property and you don't even spend time with us.
00:51:28
Julio
Where are you? We miss you. And it was just such an aha moment for me to understand what am I even doing with weddings? Like the joy, my joy comes from being out on the farm. Like my dad we used to grow, like my dad, you could go to his garden at any point. There was always something that needed to be harvested. There's always something to eat.
00:51:49
Julio
There's always something to be harvested. There's always something thriving. And side note, I'm sure my dad had his own insecurities about his garden and all the failures that he had. But I just remember walking out there with as a kid and I said, i can just eat the kale leaf up right out of the plant.
00:51:58
Jennifer Gulizia
Thank you.
00:52:05
Julio
And I think, you know, when I'm starting to think about, like I just turned 40 this year, when I start to rethink like, okay, what are some of the things that I can let go of? Some things that I want to do anymore. Some things that I would love to do more of.
00:52:18
Julio
Like education really speaks to me. Being a part of a flower community really speaks to me. I just i was teaching when I was 14. I was teaching English to kids that were younger than me. And I did that until I was 21.
00:52:31
Julio
And I love that feeling of sharing. We have so much knowledge within ourselves. There is no point in having all of this in our brain and not passing it on to somebody else or next generation or whoever you want to call it.
00:52:45
Julio
There's something that we can all learn from each other. There's something that you can teach. And I think when I start thinking about business models and how the business is going to change, and I'm not telling you that I'm going to stop doing weddings. I'm just thinking more and more, where am I going? Where am I taking this business? How am I having a much bigger impact with flowers in this business? Because the flowers are going to be it Like they're always going to be here.
00:53:10
Julio
And it's always my my message is always going to be through flowers. It's just understanding
00:53:17
Julio
how sustainable can i make it? Because farming is also really hard. I'm not here to say flower if growing flowers is easy. It's not. We all know this. so if we've If you've grown anything, you know that there's a lot of sweat and tears that go into that as well.
00:53:32
Julio
But I'm just thinking more and more, I'm grounded in the farm. I'm grounded in education. It makes me the happiest. It makes me feel like I'm contributing something to this community that has so positively welcomed me when I started.
00:53:47
Julio
and And I'm thinking about giving back. I think that's where I give back. And The weddings have taught me a lot. The weddings have taught me the like the relationship between a farmer and a florist. The weddings have taught me communication between a client and the florist. And like there's so many lessons there that if you want to do a $200,000 wedding, I can teach you how to do that.
00:54:08
Julio
If you want to do a $200 wedding, I can also teach you how to do that. I have that experience and I'd love to share that with people. And you can tailor that to whatever model you want to follow or whatever market you're in.
00:54:20
Julio
but I think the farm is really like my happy spot is being out there is really fun. Being out there really brings me joy and a sense of achievement that I've done something. You know, you always also have to work on your patience because nothing happens overnight.
00:54:37
Julio
But there's there's ways to do that. And I just think that if I'm if I'm thinking like a long term, there's definitely a very special place for education and farming in my life.
00:54:48
Julio
That was a very long answer.
00:54:49
Jennifer Gulizia
and
00:54:49
Julio
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
00:54:50
Jennifer Gulizia
No, I feel so honored that you shared that with us.
00:54:51
Julio
and
00:54:54
Jennifer Gulizia
Thank you for your honesty and for opening up like that. I think that's so relatable for so many people, especially this time of year, as we've worked so hard, you have hustled through so many weddings and caring for such a big business.
00:55:11
Jennifer Gulizia
And you just finished shipping, I'm sure hundreds of thousands of bulbs across the country.
00:55:15
Julio
Yes.
00:55:16
Jennifer Gulizia
You showed me when you spun your computer around you all the crates behind you, empty crates.
00:55:16
Julio
Yeah. Mm-hmm.
00:55:21
Julio
yeah
00:55:22
Jennifer Gulizia
So your body is in this tired phase that's ready to go and hopefully reflect. I love how we get to be so tuned in to nature and I think to ourselves.
00:55:35
Jennifer Gulizia
because we're so connected to nature that we we process things differently than everyone else maybe. Like some people would be like, that's so such a complex topic. And I'm like, really?
00:55:46
Jennifer Gulizia
And I'm like, it's just like planting the seed. And I think it's because we get so many
Rest, Reflection, and Advice for Creatives
00:55:51
Jennifer Gulizia
metaphors in what we do.
00:55:51
Julio
look at
00:55:53
Jennifer Gulizia
But what I love about this time of year is that the earth and nature gives us permission to rest and to reflect and to tend and to nourish.
00:56:02
Julio
Yes. he
00:56:05
Jennifer Gulizia
And I'm so curious as you're going into this next season of the rhythms of nature, yeah It sounds like you have a lot to reflect on right now.
00:56:16
Julio
Yes.
00:56:17
Jennifer Gulizia
And you're you're an amazing speaker the way you share from your heart that I hope you do follow some of that education because I have learned so much from you over the years, watching you, listening to you on different podcasts, that you have such a gift and you have touched so many lives in the floral industry.
00:56:35
Jennifer Gulizia
So this has been so fun talking with you. I'm looking at the clock going, oh my gosh, I feel like I just started talking.
00:56:41
Julio
How has it been 55 Yep.
00:56:44
Jennifer Gulizia
Yes, I'm like, I feel like I just started talking to you five minutes ago and I could talk to you and ask you so many more questions. But I know our listeners are probably going, OK, when are they going to wrap up?
00:56:54
Jennifer Gulizia
And you're probably like, it's it's getting late your time because this is the end of the day that we're recording.
00:56:54
Julio
yep
00:57:01
Julio
Thank you.
00:57:01
Jennifer Gulizia
So I'm going to try and wrap this up. even though I have so many more questions, but what I would love to ask you is we've talked about a lot today, but is there anything I haven't asked you today that you would like to share with our listeners?
00:57:17
Julio
Okay, first of all, I'd like the opportunity to sympathize with our flower farmers in the South who don't get snow and may not get a break because they are working on their hardy annuals right now, getting them in the ground and tending to them through the winter.
00:57:26
Jennifer Gulizia
yes
00:57:32
Jennifer Gulizia
That's true.
00:57:33
Julio
So my heart goes out to you. We have terrible... winters here and they are cold and they're very snowy and we still we we don't have snow days but that's our that's our reality here a question you haven't asked me i think this has been such an amazing uh interview i mean i just have to say that like it really brings me a lot of joy
00:58:02
Julio
when I mean, I've been asked to do like so many interviews and podcasts, and it just feels so nice to talk to somebody that knows about the flower hat, because like, I appreciate the time that you put into research. So I hope that this has also been helpful to you.
00:58:22
Julio
So I just wanted to say thank you for being such an incredible podcast host. And I've just loved our time together.
00:58:27
Jennifer Gulizia
Thank you.
00:58:30
Julio
But I wanted to say if anybody has had a tough year as well, And I know like we're looking at this, you know, like at least for me, like I'm looking at this next phase is like, oh, now I'm going to rest. And, you know, like resting really just means that I have time to sit down, recenter because I'm embarking on another journey to do it all over again next year. But I was talking about I was doing an Instagram Live but not too long ago, and I said, I need to go on an an eat, pray, love journey.
00:59:04
Julio
I'm going to close the business all of November and potentially like the first few days of December. I need to go somewhere. i need to get away. i need to go like just be with myself.
00:59:16
Julio
And then as November approached more and more, that's like that sense of like escapism just like went away and it was replaced with this feeling of no.
00:59:29
Julio
There are so many projects that you've always wanted to work on that you know are gonna bring me so much a joy. i had this weird time with my business that I fell out of love with my business and I thought, what am I doing?
00:59:45
Julio
aye I left corporate to start a job that I love And I'm my own boss. And why am I making this job so miserable for myself? You know, we go through those phases, especially in the summer, like when you're in the thick of it, like the farm is flourishing, the but weddings are happening. There's like five freelancers arriving every week.
01:00:05
Julio
When you're in the thick of it, it's so really hard to be down on yourself. And then as like as November approached, like I was saying, it just felt it just felt right to stay here.
01:00:17
Julio
like I as I'm shipping every time I come here, I have to do something for somebody else. I have to do an arrangement for a client. I have to do a wedding for a bride. I have to ship bulbs for my incredible customers.
01:00:28
Julio
I've never i would say in the last. including employees. Employees are also your customers. I have not had this time for myself in my business.
01:00:39
Julio
I'm going to say probably since I hired my first employee, which was 2017, maybe 2018, it feels right.
01:00:46
Jennifer Gulizia
wow
01:00:47
Julio
It feels good to just be here by myself. I can paint the walls. I can clean the bathroom. I can like just do most trivial things the most trivial tasks that I've been meaning to do for a long time. I promise you i have not been looking forward to cleaning the toilet. actually have a cleaning company that does that, but I'm just saying if I want to do it, I can because I'm not going to work for anybody else this time.
01:01:11
Julio
And sometimes that's what you need. You need to focus on yourself. And I always tell when I host workshops here, I always tell my students never once you know that you want to be a designer you want to hone in those skills never wait for a paying client to practice and i think in the beginning you kind of have to do it like that's what i did right when i said i was hustling i was just putting things together and delivering to get them out the door to make the money to get the experience but when you really focus on what is my style what kind of floral arrangement do i want to make
01:01:52
Julio
What kind of farm do I want to have if you want to even talk about farming? Practice during these times. Take time for yourself. Like I always say, you never you never see the the the the players tuning their violin during the concert.
01:02:10
Julio
That doesn't happen up on the stage.
01:02:11
Jennifer Gulizia
Right.
01:02:12
Julio
A wedding is the same thing. A floral arrangement is the same thing. You really just need to carve out time where you, yes, you spend the money and you go to the grocery store. If that's all you have access to in the winter, go buy the flowers. Don't worry about the flowers themselves, but worry about the technique, worry about the mechanics, get that down.
01:02:30
Julio
And then you start worrying about color palette and then you can become more and more focused on that. But you're doing that on your own time. You're doing that for yourself. You're not doing that for somebody else. When somebody pays you for a job, the expectations are so high.
01:02:46
Julio
And I think that sometimes is where the confidence is shaken up a little bit because All you have is pressure. You just have pressure to deliver really beautiful arrangement, but you never practiced to make that arrangement before. And now is showtime and you're like, don't know if I can do this.
01:03:03
Julio
You wouldn't feel that way if you had taken the time to say, I'm going to create an arrangement today that is bright red and bright yellow, and I am going to make it look good.
01:03:14
Julio
And you're going to do it because one day somebody going to ask you for that arrangement and you're going to deliver ketchup and mustard and you're going to say, what is this? taking time for yourself to dedicate to the craft that you're trying to produce to the world is going to be really beneficial, not just for your confidence, but for your creative self.
01:03:34
Julio
You're just going to feel so much better about the product that you're delivering if only you take time to practice. i Here now it's stick season.
01:03:45
Julio
I love going out there during stick season. and i And for those of you who don't know, stick season is there are no leaves on the plants anymore. All the leaves have fallen. You just kind of have some sticks here and there in the garden.
01:03:58
Julio
there's some evergreens that are holding on just go cut those don't worry about how ugly they look you're making a seasonal arrangement and you're in the season of sticks create a really beautiful arrangement of different types of sticks big i don't know five six different types of plants that produce different textures and different colors practice that and understand what the plants are trying to tell you connect with your arrangement.
01:04:25
Julio
We, again, we just tend to do that so automatically during an event or during a wedding that we were just trying to deliver a really beautiful product, but you just can't, if you're not practicing, if you're not taking the time to dedicate to it.
01:04:39
Julio
So that's my message.
01:04:42
Jennifer Gulizia
That is amazing advice. I love that so
Community Support and Connecting with Giulio
01:04:44
Jennifer Gulizia
much. And this time of year is the perfect time to do that.
01:04:47
Julio
Yes.
01:04:48
Jennifer Gulizia
We're recording this episode in November and it's goingnna it's going to air to our listeners just shortly after. at one thing I love about November is that it's a month of gratitude.
01:04:59
Jennifer Gulizia
So I want to ask you, what is something you are grateful for this month?
01:04:59
Julio
Mm hmm.
01:05:06
Julio
I am grateful for the network that is around me. i The flower hat doesn't exist without, I'm naming all of them again, the customers that buy the bulbs, the brides that hire me and trust me with their wedding design for that one day.
01:05:24
Julio
the the The vendor network around weddings that go from the caterers, the photographers that I, you know, really drive with my style, the planners, the venues, all of those people around me that really come together to create a really beautiful product.
01:05:40
Julio
The podcasters that interview me to spread the message about what local flowers are and how easily accessible they can be. You just have to, you know, get away from going to the grocery store to find them.
01:05:53
Julio
the The community of flower farmers that are connected through social media now, between Facebook, social Instagram, throw TikTok in there, the associations of flower farmers that are now connecting more and more people together so they can share experiences, share failures, share successes.
01:06:16
Julio
There's so many people that I send a text to and I say, what did you say that one time about that seed that you found on that trip that we were? And they're like, oh, yeah, it's this one. that connect That network around you is really what makes your business successful.
01:06:34
Julio
And that's where my gratitude is. Even locally speaking, I'm connected to flower farmers here that make my business successful. There's a whole community around me that supports this vision that I have for this business.
01:06:48
Julio
And I'm so thankful to each one of them for being part of Flowers brought us all together, and it's so weird to say that because like it wasn't so long ago that local flowers were not necessarily a thing. And it's just so beautiful that something so magical and so mesmerizing was able to like connect so many people together, especially like in the last, I'm going to say, 10 years.
01:07:13
Julio
My gratitude goes to my network around me. And yeah, flowers are pretty powerful.
01:07:21
Jennifer Gulizia
That's beautiful. Thank you, Julio.
01:07:24
Julio
Mm-hmm.
01:07:24
Jennifer Gulizia
I'm grateful for you being here today and for sharing so much wisdom and speaking from the heart. I mean, you can tell just how authentically you live.
01:07:35
Jennifer Gulizia
And it's really beautiful. And you are adding so much to this floral community. And we're so lucky to have you be a part of it. So I hope that this is a restful season for you and that you get some of that clarity for that future direction and figure out where you're going to add in some of those educational components for us as well. We'll be excited to hear.
01:07:54
Jennifer Gulizia
And maybe when that time comes, you can come back on the podcast and share an update with us.
01:08:00
Julio
Perfect. I would love that. Thank you so much for having me. Keep doing what you're doing. This is incredible. We need you. And I appreciate you having me.
01:08:06
Jennifer Gulizia
Thank you. know
01:08:08
Julio
And I just truly cannot believe time has gone by so fast.
01:08:12
Jennifer Gulizia
So fast. The last thing I promise before we say goodbye is how can our listeners best connect with you?
01:08:14
Julio
Yeah.
01:08:19
Julio
You can find me on social media, The Flower Hat on Instagram, Facebook. I have a Facebook group called The Flower Hat Exchange. i Can I be honest now?
01:08:31
Julio
I didn't realize that many people were on Facebook anymore.
01:08:32
Jennifer Gulizia
Absolutely.
01:08:36
Julio
And I created the Flower Hat Exchange so we could exchange ideas about flower farming and floral design. And i didn't realize that there were that many people in that group. And I just kind of disappeared. And I was like, well, no one is using Facebook anymore.
01:08:49
Julio
Oh, my goodness. So many people are on Facebook. So I'm definitely bringing that group back as a lively discussion. So you can find it on Facebook. And again, it's the Flower Hat Exchange. But I'm the Flower Hat on all social media platforms.
01:09:01
Jennifer Gulizia
Perfect. And that's your website as well.
01:09:04
Julio
Theflowerhat.com. Yes.
01:09:05
Jennifer Gulizia
Well, we will include show links to all of those ways that people can connect with you and continue following your journey. Julio, from the bottom of my heart, thanks for being here and have a restful season. We'll talk to you again soon.
01:09:18
Julio
Thank you, Jen. Bye everybody.
01:09:19
Jennifer Gulizia
Thank you.