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Ep.44: From A Vision To A Thriving Flower Farm With Lori Hernandez of Three Acre Farm
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Have you ever wondered “What does it take to transform a dream into a thriving flower farm?” In this episode of the Backyard Bouquet Podcast, host Jennifer Guliza welcomes Lori Hernandez from Three Acre Farm, who shares her inspiring journey from city life to flower farming. Lori recounts the pivotal moment in 2009 when a vivid vision of a beautiful farm filled with laughter and connection sparked her desire to cultivate a space that celebrates the transformative power of flowers.
In this episode,you’ll discover how Lori and her husband, John, took a leap of faith, selling their city home to pursue their dream of farming. Initially focused on growing vegetables, Lori's perspective shifts dramatically when John introduces dahlias into their lives, leading to a newfound appreciation for flowers and their impact on mental well-being. The couple's journey evolves as they transition from a U-pick flower farm to a self-serve flower stand, adapting their business model to fit their family's changing needs.
Throughout the conversation, Lori emphasizes the importance of nurturing dreams, protecting them from external opinions, and recognizing the value of help in achieving success. She shares her insights on hiring a virtual assistant and the significance of setting ambitious goals that may seem illogical but can lead to unexpected growth.
Tune in to hear the full conversation, filled with heartfelt stories, practical advice, and the wisdom that comes from years of experience in the flower farming world. Join Jennifer and Lori as they explore the beauty of flowers and the joy of cultivating a life aligned with one's passions.
In This Episode You’ll Hear About:
01:49: From City Life to Flower Farming
04:48: From Vision to Reality: Finding Our Dream Farm
08:58: From Vegetables to Dahlias
15:44: Embracing Authenticity in Business
18:34: Finding Focus in Farming
28:56: The Value of Hiring Support in Business
37:40: Vision Planning for Farmers: Reflecting and Envisioning the Future
40:05: Intuition, Goals, and Lifestyle Reflections
41:49: Balancing Farm Goals and Lifestyle
45:02: The Importance of Coaching and Accepting Reality in Farming
59:11: Embracing Boundaries and Joy in Business and Life
Show Notes: https://thefloweringfarmhouse.com/2024/12/21/ep-44-three-acre-farm-from-vision-to-thriving-flower-farm/
Learn More About Three Acre Farm:
- https://www.threeacrefarm.net/
- https://www.instagram.com/three.acre.farm.mi/
- https://www.facebook.com/threeacrefarm.mi
Podcast Listeners Enjoy 7 Days of Growth Day FREE: https://www.growthday.com/?via=floweringfarmhouse
Sign up for our newsletter: https://bit.ly/thefloweringfarmhousenewsletter
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Transcript
Introduction to Backyard Bouquet Podcast
00:00:02
Speaker
Welcome to the Backyard Bouquet podcast, where stories bloom from local flower fields and home gardens. I'm your host, Jennifer Galitzia of the Flowering Farmhouse. I'm a backyard gardener turned flower farmer located in Hood River, Oregon. Join us for heartfelt journeys shared by flower farmers and backyard gardeners. Each episode is like a vibrant garden, cultivating wisdom and joy through flowers. From growing your own backyard garden to supporting your local flower farmer,
00:00:32
Speaker
The backyard bouquet is your fertile ground for heartwarming tales and expert cut flower growing advice. All right flower friends, grab your gardening gloves, garden snips, or your favorite vase because it's time to let your backyard bloom.
00:00:55
Speaker
Hey flower friends, it's your friend Jennifer here, welcoming you back to another episode of the Backyard Bouquet podcast.
Jennifer's Personal Growth Insights
00:01:02
Speaker
Today, I want to share a little secret that helps me bloom, not just in my garden, but in my personal life too. That's growth day. It's the world's leading platform for self-improvement, where I find daily inspiration and invaluable wisdom from mentors like Brendan Burchard, Jenna Kutcher, and Mel Robbins.
00:01:22
Speaker
Just like we nurture our gardens, Growth Day has helped me nurture my mind with their incredible tools and community support. Every morning, I use their app for a dose of motivation and to jot down my daily thoughts, setting the stage for a productive day. I have arranged a special gift for all of you, seven free days to explore Growth Day.
00:01:42
Speaker
Head to the show notes for this episode to claim your free trial and start planting seeds of personal growth today. Now let's turn our attention back to today's blooming agenda. Thanks for tuning in and here's to growing our best selves together.
Lori Hernandez's Journey to Flower Farming
00:01:58
Speaker
Today, I'm delighted to introduce Lori Hernandez from Three Acre Farm, where a profound vision in 2009 sparked a remarkable journey from city life to flower farming. Over the years, Lori and her husband John have transformed their farm into a vibrant community space, deeply connected to nature and filled with the joy of growing flowers.
00:02:21
Speaker
Three Acre Farm isn't just about farming. It's about creating connections and celebrating the transformative power of flowers through their classes, tours, and special events. Those who are fortunate enough to visit Three Acre Farm leave not just as customers, but as friends of the farm. Lori, welcome to today's podcast. Let's start from the very beginning. Can you tell us about your vision back in 2009 and what inspired you to become a flower farmer?
00:02:51
Speaker
Yeah. Oh, wow. We are going way back to 2009. We are. It's the end of the year, so let's just go way back. Let's go way back. Okay. So 2009, my daughter was just a couple months old, and this is my second child. and um neither one of my kids slept well so I was always exhausted always super tired and so one night I was rocking her to sleep and I can't remember if I was asleep or if I was awake but um all of a sudden I saw this beautiful farm in my mind and I don't know if you've ever had dreams like that where you can kind of like
00:03:28
Speaker
I see yourself like from up above. absolutely so I could see myself in this gorgeous garden surrounded by people and the more I looked, I'm like, oh, there's my family and there's my kids, my kids when they were older. And we were surrounded by all these amazing people and we were laughing and we were talking and we were of like hugging and crying and I was like, I don't even know who these people are, but obviously these are my people and these are my friends. And the feeling was just incredible. And then I woke up and it was so confused because I'd never had like such a strong vision or dream like that before. And I just, I put my daughter in her crib, laid in bed almost the whole night and just said, Lord, what was that? Like, what is the meaning of that? And he just answered very simply,
00:04:16
Speaker
I want you to go make that happen." And so I was so scared because I had had this vision where like, okay, I'm supposed to like go to the farm or like build a farm? We lived in the city and I didn't know how to do any of this. So for about three months, I didn't say anything. And finally I said to my husband like, hey, so I had this dream and I think we're supposed to go move to a farm.
00:04:41
Speaker
And he was like, sure, let's do that. He just said yes? He said yes. I mean, like my husband is up for anything. And it was it was so crazy. um And so we sold our house in the city. Like we had a little house with a little backyard and I had a 10 foot by 10 foot garden.
00:04:58
Speaker
And we started looking for the farm that I had seen in my vision. I'm a very logical like person. And to go out seeking the place I had seen in my imagination felt ridiculous. um So we looked at tons of farms, tons of places. None of them were it. So finally, we go to this one farm. My husband's like, let's go check this one out. like We get out of the car. My foot hits the ground.
00:05:24
Speaker
I just started crying and he's like, what's going on? This is it. I knew it was the place I had seen. When we got to the farm, nothing was there. The fields were fallow and empty, but I knew it was the farm. Gosh, it's been 14 years now. We've been spending the last 14 years.
00:05:45
Speaker
taking that vision in my head and turning it into reality. So again, I'm a very logical person and like operating, making all of my decisions based on a dream, feeling crazy, but also really fun at the same time. So I'm sorry, that was a long story. but No, I yeah love it. You've given me goosebumps. um Here I am, 14 years behind you, it kind of feels like because my story I feel is so similar to where I also felt like there was this vision, this calling to do something. And my husband went along with it. At first he was like, no way until he saw the vision though. But it was the same thing where like tears just filled my eyes yes when I saw the farm. so
00:06:29
Speaker
yeah i I get it and I'm so excited to hear more about your story because I'm at that blank slate right now of yeah this isn't logical, but my heart feels it. Yeah. Yeah. It's scary. It's really scary to share your dreams with other people. and I do encourage people like you know share your dreams to someone who's safe at the beginning and maybe don't show that from the rooftops because it's like this little seed of a dream and an idea and it needs to be like nurtured.
00:06:58
Speaker
and cared for and protected a little bit. But yeah, to have ah has my husband and partner who's like, Yeah, let's give this a go. And like, let's see. And we, I will say like, we did not move to the farm ever with the idea of like, starting a flower farm.
00:07:15
Speaker
I didn't even know farming was a thing when we moved there. Basically, I just wanted a big garden full of vegetables and flowers, and I wanted chickens, you know, the gateway drug to farming. um And so it all just kind of, yeah, it it just kind of kept going from there, building upon itself. so But yeah, just taking that first step of, like, I had this dream, I had this vision, and we're going to turn it into reality. And it's hard. um I always say that dreams are not always so dreamy. You know, like, dreams are confusing and complicated. And um we always think, like, oh, it's so dreamy, it's so wonderful. But dreams are really hard and weird. and
00:08:00
Speaker
They aren't logical and they don't make sense, and that has been our story. like Nothing has made sense and nothing has been logical, but here we are. It's a lot of fun. 14 years later, you have a thriving flower farm that school around the world know about.
Connecting with the Audience Beyond Social Media
00:08:14
Speaker
and yeah I mean, I found you, I don't know how many years ago, through a Facebook group. I think I joined your Facebook group and then I got on your e-mail list and your e-mails are so inspiring every week. Thank you.
00:08:26
Speaker
thank you Yes, I love my email list. That is my favorite place to be. I'm on social media, but that is my favorite place to be is on email. You can just get so much more personal and share so much more. Exactly. Yeah. I always hate when I like reach the end of a caption on Instagram. yeah But I had more to say. Yeah, there's a lot of limitations. Exactly. So I love directing people to email and instead. so I feel like it's a better place for us to communicate. Absolutely. You can share so much more. Well, I am still so curious about more of your journey if I can ask you some more questions. ah So you found this land. You decided you were going to do chickens. You were going to have a garden. How did that evolve to a flower farm?
00:09:11
Speaker
Oh, okay. So I mean, again, long story. I'll make it short. So when we moved to the farm, we were living in our city house and I started taking the master gardener program at Michigan State University. And so it was really cool taking this class like as we were transitioning to our new farm. um And i I had grown vegetables and so we moved to the farm and I started making this enormous vegetable garden. like Oh my gosh, Jen, I grew half of the food. you know I was canning, preserving, crazy person like homesteader. I grew everything. You dove in. I dove in and I loved it. Honestly, what happened is I feel like I conquered all the vegetables. I figured out how to grow everything and that wasn't really challenging anymore.
00:10:00
Speaker
And so i started my husband's like what would you could start adding some flowers in there so i started adding flowers and there's so many flowers and like i can never run out of flowers to keep growing and experimenting but really the farm like i have to give my husband credit for it because he came home from work one day.
00:10:18
Speaker
He was working full-time. I was home with the kids and homesteading on the farm. He came home one day and said, I think I want to grow these flowers called dahlias. And I know if some people say dahlia, dahlia, whatever. um And I was like, are you crazy? Because like he grows grass seed. That's it.
00:10:35
Speaker
And he's like yeah i wanna grow some because i think we need something beautiful on our farm and i was like you can't eat flowers like i do not have time to grow silly stupid little flowers this is so dumb. ah And he said why still wanna grow the flowers anyway so he took money from our groceries hundred bucks for my grocery money and i was super mad cuz we were.
00:10:57
Speaker
didn't have a lot of money so i'm like alright reading beans and rice for the rest of the month cuz he wants to buy these dumb flowers oh my god and so he took this hundred dollars found some like facebook marketplace thing some old cajer was selling a bunch of delia tubers and um you know, selling them for five bucks a piece or something. My husband's like, I'll take the whole lot of them for a hundred dollars. So the man gives them to him, comes home with 300 daily tubers. That's not small to start. No, we have never grown them. I have, I didn't even know what this flower was. Didn't know anything. I was so mad. It's like, are you kidding me? Because I knew how this was going to work, that I was going to end up growing all these flowers and I did not want to. That was too busy with my vegetables. So yeah, we,
00:11:44
Speaker
Grow 300 daily a tubers he joins the west michigan daily a society starts going to all these meetings super addicted he's like these are so fun they're so cool so i mean we're learning using internet the people in the daily a society.
00:11:59
Speaker
I did not realize though at the time that dahlias are like a fall blooming flower. So I had planted all these and I'm watering them and weeding them doing this, so you know, every day all summer. I was so annoyed. And then I think it was like late August, the first bloom showed up and like, you know, I'm surveying the field of green. I'm like, Oh, there's something pink over there. And I walked over there and looked at that flower. And like, I just started crying, Jen, like, i it was like i We had been working so hard for so long in the farm that I didn't realize that like my heart needed something beautiful instead of just practical. um yeah And so I'm standing out there in the field like crying, and then of course I cut it and bring it in the house. I'm like, oh my gosh, this is amazing. And so we grew them just for ourselves for two or three years. And then finally, one year, oh, it was right around 2016.
00:12:56
Speaker
um around the election time and it was a very divisive election which now it's even more so but back then you know we were like oh gosh we're like what if we could like make the world a better place through flowers like and people can see that we're not that different that we all you know kind of have the same basic needs to feel loved and welcomed and that flowers was the answer for us to that and my husband said maybe we should start a flower farm and grow dahlias and the world would be different if we could share this beauty with other people. and Oh, you're giving me goosebumps. that was That was it. And so we had this little joke that like I was team vegetable and he was team flower and we were going to have this competition because we had a little farm stand on the corner one year. And so I sold the vegetables, he sold the flowers and he won.
00:13:49
Speaker
So we're like, okay, we're going to try team flowers here and see how that goes. But yeah, long story short, that's just kind of how he's the one who actually brought it about. I was reluctant. I thought flowers were kind of silly and insignificant because you can't eat them and they're not practical and who needs flowers. um So I had like this complete transformation of um learning to really love the flowers and now I can't live without them. And I realize how important they are for mental health and wellbeing, which has become even more important for me, you know, year after year here. Absolutely. I love that so much. And it all goes back to your dream though, because you mentioned that you're a logical person, but you're dreamed and it makes sense. So, and you talked about that seed that you were nurturing, which
00:14:36
Speaker
two things I really love that you said you had to protect that little seedling that was growing. um Because I know for me, like I just want to scream from the rooftop right now, like I've got this farm, I have these ideas, I want people to come. But yeah your advice is so valuable of really protecting that. and Because everyone, like I'm finding out with my farm, everyone has an idea for me of what I should do. And now my eye is going, well, maybe I shouldn't do that, maybe I should do that instead. And then my my whole vision plan is,
00:15:05
Speaker
going, well, I don't know where to go now because I have so many people trying to give me advice. um But also, I love that as you were nurturing this and looking for that logic, John added that piece. and you It was like these roots. You've been laying these roots for those yeah what five or six years.
00:15:22
Speaker
yeah And then you and kind of like you had to wait for that dahlia to bloom. yeah At the same time, I mean, to be very metaphorical here. I mean, I love how symbolic it is. That's one of the things I love about flowers is how oh yeah there's so much that we can relate to the flowers and your journey is so much like that dahlia that you had to wait to see bloom. So that's such a beautiful story. Exactly. And everything just takes time and it comes in its own perfect time. And yeah, Jen, just, I mean,
00:15:51
Speaker
Everyone's always gonna tell you what you should be doing and we can spend our whole lives right like doing all the things that other people think we should be doing but it takes a lot of courage to just sit down and think of like, yeah, who am I and what what am I here to do and what, you know, what are my passions and desires because Yeah, that's one thing I've I got caught up in very early on in my business is like people pleasing trying to do all the things that everybody wants and that can really lead to burnout and like ah feeling out of integrity with yourself. And so you're really wise to recognize that already and just be like, Oh, hold on. What was my true mission and and in just going back to your vision over and over and over again.
00:16:34
Speaker
Yes. Well, tell us more about your farm. So now yeah the bug hits you and 2016 flowers won over vegetables. yeahp How did you go? I mean, what does your model look like now? You have a full scale flower farm on how many acres do you have?
Evolving Farm and Business Models
00:16:52
Speaker
We are a three acre farm, but we're actually it's like 2.69 or 2.96. Close enough. Close enough. Close enough. And I would say we have about be a little more than an acre in production. So um do you want me to just give like stats on our farm here? where Yeah, I would love to know like what you grow, where your business models are. Yeah, yeah. So ah we're first of all location, like we're in Michigan. So um
00:17:22
Speaker
which is around zone 5B56A kind of around there. And our frost dates are May 15 to October 15. So we have anywhere from like five to six months of frost free growing. um we Our business models have changed over the year, like every year we're doing something a little bit different. And I think that is just farming. Like you start with one thing, the farm grows and changes and develops as you grow and change and develop. So when we started the farm in 2017, we started that in the spring of 2017 when we opened, ah we were a Yupik flower farm. I was going back to that vision and that's how I knew I was going to make the vision come true. It was like opening up our farm to the public.
00:18:09
Speaker
And so we did that for the first couple years. My kids were younger. My kids were seven and nine at the time. So it was a ah business model that allowed me to um be present with my kids at the same time, which I know that can be really complicated.
00:18:25
Speaker
And I think there's a lot of people that get into farming like, oh, I'm going to farm with my kids. And it will be easy. And they can work alongside me. And it's a little more complicated than that. But my kids were old enough to kind of, they still thought it was cool and wanted to help me out with that. So that was our main UPIC. And then we had a farm stand on the corner. We did the UPIC for four or five seasons. And then as my kids got older into, um high school ages. like our Our lives just got busier and busier, and it just became unsustainable for us to do that. Because when we were doing UPIC, it was like basically like having three parties at your house every week, which is kind of exhausting and kind of a lot. Absolutely. And so we're like, you know what? We need to press pause on this for this time of our life. And so now we primarily
00:19:18
Speaker
We have a farm stand. We call it our flower house, a little flower shed where we sell bouquets and bunches. And that self-serve people come. It's open certain days of the week. ah We have daily tubers that we sell online. We have seeds. And then I teach a couple classes. I have an online class.
00:19:38
Speaker
And we teach classes on the farm. We also have a couple events. We call them like flower happy hour events where people get to come and cut and arrange and make these beautiful bouquets, hang out with their friends. So those are the things we do right now. But um every year, I feel like I just keep narrowing the focus more and more and more because a lot of new farmers at the beginning, you're trying all sorts of different things.
00:20:03
Speaker
um And I think that's fine to like figure out your personality, what's a good fit for you, what's a good fit for your farm and your community. But in the end, you will figure out, you know you can't be doing 12 different things. at this like It's just too scattered. So the older I get, the more I just want to really hone in on like what are the things that I really love, the things that are deeply fulfilling, the things that are making a difference in my life and my community's life and in the farm and just really getting good at doing those few things. So it is, it's hard with social media because we have the shiny object syndrome where we're seeing like, oh, that person's doing this. Oh, they're doing this. Oh, I should do that. And then you feel like guilty that you're not doing all the things, but
00:20:53
Speaker
um Yeah, just a word of caution. It's okay to try a lot of things, but it's also okay to let some of them go and weed them out as you go. I think it's the same when you're growing your crops on your farm and your garden. like You try all the things and then you kind of figure out like and not everything's a good fit for your you know for your garden or your growing space. so Absolutely.
00:21:17
Speaker
Yeah. Did I answer did to answer the questions about my farm? Okay. You did. Yes. So just to summarize, so currently you have a self-serve flower stand. Yes. Yeah. And that's our primary
From Complexity to Simplicity in Farming
00:21:30
Speaker
outlet. And that is um we do not do any CSA or any weddings or anything that I have to have flowers ready.
00:21:41
Speaker
on a certain date or certain flowers. um And that is, we do that on purpose because of my personality. I was way too stressed out by people's, you know, like I need this flower on this day, like my cortisol levels were like going crazy and my stress was way too high. um So it's like, whatever flowers we have are going to go out there and when they're gone, they're gone and nobody can reserve anything. It is just There's flowers, you can come get them. And that has worked out really well for us. um But we also and just, you know, anyone who wants to do a self serve, we have been doing a self serve farm stand for over a decade now. So it just takes it takes time.
00:22:29
Speaker
for people to know that you're there i usually tell people it takes about three years for like to be really consistent and what were on a busy road i have people that will say you know i've driven past your farm for five years twice a day and never stopped and now i finally did and then you've got a customer for life but it just takes time.
00:22:48
Speaker
for that. So if it's self-serve, how do you know how many bouquets to make each week? Or is it kind of just a learn as you go? It is kind of learn as you go. I do keep records um from year to year of you know how many I put out there in the morning, how many are left at the end of the day. But yeah, you don't know. like I just, we make a lot of bouquets. We have a big cooler, so we always have some kind of in the back stock. So i'm kind I'm checking usually twice a day to restock. okay um And if like, okay, we're running low, let's quick make more. But we're we're usually making bouquets two to three times a week. And we're making, you know, and making a lot of a amount of time just to be more efficient and then keeping them in the cooler until we're ready to stock them out there.
00:23:32
Speaker
Oh, that's smart. So you're pre-making them. Yeah. So you're not every single day having to make new ones to stop. Exactly. Yeah, because making bouquets, that whole process, like the actual making bouquets isn't that time consuming, but the setup and the cleanup and all of that. You know, it's just like cooking, that putting out all your ingredients and cleaning up after dinner takes probably more time than it does to actually cook the dinner. Absolutely. And you're open three days a week for your We're open five days a week so we're open Tuesday through Saturday. We're closed on Sundays and then Monday because Monday is our main harvest day. We harvest and make a lot of our bouquets on Monday so that we can be open on Tuesday. I used to be open on Monday but then I was working on Sunday and so um this way we get our I get a weekend but my weekend is Sunday, Monday instead of Saturday, Sunday like most people's are.
00:24:27
Speaker
That's kind of nice because then Monday when everyone else is at the busy back at the grind, you have the opportunity to go places where it's not super crowded. Exactly. like That's when I do all of my groceries. I treat Mondays like a Saturday. like like I imagine most people treat their Saturday running my errands and doing all that stuff. so Yeah, it works out really well.
00:24:48
Speaker
And how many months is your farm stand open? I know you said you have five to six months that are frost free, but do you have yeah hours blooming for five to six months? we So this year, our weather was really great and we and it was a little odd. We had tulips and daffodils starting in mid-April. Usually we're open, I would say, like May 15 till October 15, which is my frost dates. But this year, we had it was a mild winter, so our tulips came a month early, so we were open on April 15. And we had flowering cabbages that we planted this year, and those bloomed all the way up to Thanksgiving. So we closed, what, like 10 days ago? Which is crazy to be open that long in Michigan.
00:25:36
Speaker
But yeah, we had a long season. We had a couple of weeks there in October, November, where there really wasn't anything. So we just shut down for a little while, but opened it back up for Thanksgiving. So that was pretty amazing. I'm just looking at my calendar, yeah, to to be able to be open for almost eight months of the year. That's incredible. And do you know on average how many bouquets you go through in a week? I have these numbers somewhere, but I don't have it written down. I'm putting you on the spot. I know, putting me on the spot.
00:26:06
Speaker
So I would say somewhere between 50 and 100. And it depends on the week. you know When you got like a big holiday or something, then it might be like 300 that week. Wow. look that So to like you know Mother's Day around there. So we're 4th of July, those kinds of things. um But it is kind of unpredictable. We don't know when there's going to be big surges. And it's weather dependent. like The weather is nice. People come get lots of flowers. If it's rainy, they might not. We might not sell as many.
00:26:35
Speaker
Yeah, I've been trying to track and keep better records so I can see the patterns, but it really is just like all the farming weather dependent and how people are feeling.
Improving Efficiency and Productivity
00:26:44
Speaker
But that's incredible. 50 to 100 bouquets a week and then around holidays up to 300.
00:26:49
Speaker
the Are you doing that by yourself or do you have a team? No, I'm not doing that by myself. i ah I was doing pretty much all of it by myself. I would say probably the first five or six years. I had a friend who would come in and weed for maybe a couple of hours a week and my husband after work would come help me, but I was doing a lot of it by myself.
00:27:13
Speaker
and it's it's It's not sustainable. right and it's it I have a ceiling. like I was the limiting factor. like I can't make more hours in the day. I cannot work faster. My body cannot do more. and so ah la This past year, I hired someone and she comes in about 25 to 30 hours a week and that has been absolutely magical. um She's doing a lot of the harvesting of training her to make the bouquets. um And just to have like someone else working alongside me has brought a lot of energy and passion back where I don't feel I'm and not so tired. And we you know there's two of us. We can double and triple our output. And so that's how we're able to sell that many bouquets is I'm not doing it all by myself anymore.
00:28:02
Speaker
ah but Yeah. it I know a lot of people starting out their farms have that conundrum of like, well, I'm not making enough money to even pay myself. You know, how can I pay somebody else? And I will just say, I think a lot of times you will end up having to pay someone before you can pay yourself. And I know that doesn't make a lot of sense, but you are the limiting factor. And if you can, like, I always think of it as like a log jam in a river, like it is jammed up and we need something to like break up this jam.
00:28:33
Speaker
And that something is usually hiring someone to come help you, and they can help you bra break up the log jam so that the work can get flowing, the money can get flowing, and it doesn't make a lot of logical sense. Here we go back to logic. So many things don't make logical sense, but um yeah, hiring someone is going to make you more money so that you can pay them and pay yourself eventually as well.
00:28:56
Speaker
So that that's been wonderful. I have her helping. And then this year, I also hired a um ah virtual assistant to help me on the business end. And she comes, she, um yeah, she's not on the farm, she's virtual. So she gets into the backend of my business for a couple hours a week, just helping me process emails and um working on website stuff, just all that stuff that, I mean, it was, because it was last year,
00:29:25
Speaker
I mean, I think by the time we got to August, you know, I couldn't keep up with email. I was answering the emails from August in November. I mean, I was months behind. I just couldn't do it. Just trying to do too much as one person. So if I could do it all over again, I'd probably hire a virtual assistant right away starting my business, just someone a couple hours a week to help me with that kind of stuff. And then help having the field help is really, really fantastic. But it took me a long time to get there.
00:29:54
Speaker
And I wish I wouldn't have been so stubborn thinking that I could do it all by myself. So that's my best advice. like Just admit you can't do it and find the help. I really love that. I love what you said. You are the limiting factor, which is so true for so many of us. And I can 100% agree about the paying someone else before you pay yourself a salary. um yeah With my previous growing space, I did that. i And it allowed me to grow my business. And now I'm at the point where I'm looking to hire either yeah three-fourths full-time or a full-time employee this year. yeah um Because really, you can only do so much yourself. Right. right And they your employees make you you and your firm so much stronger and so much better, and not being the only one out there,
00:30:44
Speaker
you know working all the time is, I don't know. it's it's just I've been so much healthier mentally, physically, emotionally this year, just knowing that I have support out there and don't have to do it all myself, that I'm not superwoman. A lot of us farmers are kind of like almost treating ourselves inhumanely, like having these expectations that are just not possible for one person. so yeah I had to have some hard conversations with myself that you know I'm actually doing the farm a disservice by trying to do everything by myself. I can't keep up with my customers, I can't keep up with my family, I can't keep up with myself, can't keep up with the farm. So yes, they're like basically that is like the solution to a lot of the problems is getting help. Absolutely. I love what you said about the virtual assistant too. Makes me think, okay, maybe that's what I need because I'm nervous to admit, but all oh I'll admit it. My email inbox,
00:31:42
Speaker
is always the thing that suffers. mean I have so many unread messages because at the end of the day, I'm tired. And the beginning of the day, especially in the summer months, you're like, okay, well, I got to get out in the field and harvest before it gets hot. And then all of a sudden, there's no time for email. And then you're a whole month behind before you know it. Yeah, I mean, so what I'll tell you, Jen, what um So what prompted me to get a virtual assistant is over the winter last year, I worked with a SCORE mentor. So um SCORE is kind of like the Small Business Development Association. This is a government program, but SCORE is a program
00:32:22
Speaker
that will match business owners with business mentors. It's free. so So you just put an application in and I was like, I need someone to help me figure out the systems and processes in my business. and So I met with my mentor. He's not of in the farming industry. He was actually in like tech industry, which I really loved because he was like, let's figure out how to systematize your business. and He's like, I want you to sit down and estimate how many hours you're spending on each task in your business.
00:32:50
Speaker
and That was super scary. I had to sit down and write down everything I do, which the list was like a mile long. That was terrifying to see all the things that I was doing. and so He's like, okay, all the things you're doing in the office, how much time are you spending on e-mail every day? How much time are you doing this? and I was spending like the equivalent of a workday or more on e-mail. I was like, if someone else could handle that, I buy back in an entire day per week, 52 days.
00:33:19
Speaker
52 days a year, I buy back by having someone else working through that and processing it. And so that was really eye opening that someone else can do this. This is maybe not my best and highest use because when I'm checking email and answering email, I'm not growing flowers. I'm not writing new content. I'm not helping people. So just some things to think about, you know, taking a hard look at your business. do i really Am I the best one to do this? Or could somebody else do a better job at this? I love that. I read a book this year called um Who,
00:33:56
Speaker
Not Why. Oh, okay. Am I saying that right? Yeah, yeah, yeah. I know which one you're talking about. I just put that on my um my Audible list. Yeah, yeah. Yes, I listened to Audible. So it was on Audible. And it was fabulous because it really got me thinking, who are the right people?
00:34:15
Speaker
or I'm sorry, it's not it's who, not how. yeah So not how am I going to do this, but who am I going to have helped me do this? And it's been so powerful. Just this last week, I met with someone that I'm hoping to bring on to the farm this year. And I was talking to her and I said, well, you know, my one thing I struggle with is making bouquets because I'm so inefficient with time. Like with our CSA and roadside stand, I told her it takes me For my CSA, I've capped it at 15 people. So when you talk about limiting, okay I have never done more than 15 people because saying I have high standards. I am a perfectionist. So everything takes me so long. I'll remake a bouquet five times over because I don't think it looks right. She's like, Jen, I could help you produce 80 bouquets in the same amount of time. right Because she has that experience. And I'm going, you can do that. many And I've seen her work. It's beautiful.
00:35:06
Speaker
And so I'm like, I could even release that part of my business and I could harvest more flowers because I'm fast at harvesting flowers. I can harvest buckets and buckets yeah in the amount of time that she can heart or she can make those bouquets. I'm like, oh my gosh, as a team, I can do more than double. I can quadruple my production. Exactly. Yeah, it is. who The multiplication factor of inviting people to help you is just, it's astounding. And that's what my farmhand and I, we always feel like there's two of us working side by side. We don't double our output. We feel like we triple our quadruplet. I don't know what the math, I feel like it's like crazy math, like magic math or something like that, how it works. But yes, having the right people doing the right
00:35:55
Speaker
things doesn't just like double it it triples or you know your production. it's It's really crazy, but such a good realization to have. Yes. Do you have any tips on hiring a virtual assistant? Because that that sounds daunting to me as a farmer.
00:36:10
Speaker
I really don't. So my virtual assistant um actually was, she followed me on Facebook and I didn't know her. She would just leave really amazing comments on my Facebook page.
00:36:25
Speaker
um And i was like oh my gosh i really like this person who is she and i just went in facebook stock turn found out she was a virtual assistant so no way i so i guess. That is probably the only thing i can give some advice is like i felt a real connection with her even before i knew what she did.
00:36:42
Speaker
um and I knew like she we had the same sense of humor and like operated the same way in the world. and So um when I started working with her, it felt very natural and very comfortable because working with a virtual assistant is like basically bearing your soul. I felt like I was opening my, you know how you have like the closet in the house where you shove all the stuff that you don't want other people to see? It's like, here's my closet with all my junk. Could you please organize all of this?
00:37:11
Speaker
um So finding someone that you feel really comfortable with and that you know has your same humor and work style I think is is helpful. But I guess I don't have other... I got lucky. I felt like Yeah, I tried and we worked out right away and it's been a great relationship. That's amazing. I love that. Maybe someone will come along for me like that. Maybe, yes. Put it out into the universe. I'm going to put it out in the universe, yes. So you said you're a very logical person, but you had this vision. I assume you do vision planning on your farm. I do, yeah.
00:37:51
Speaker
Can we talk about that since it's the end of the year? And I'm assuming that there's a lot of farmers and gardeners listening, yeah probably visioning their next year right now. Right. Yeah. So I'm trying to think of what I, I have a process that I do. Gosh, I don't have it in front of me. Um, but, but basically every year at the end of the season, I'll go over
Reflecting and Planning for the Future
00:38:12
Speaker
the same thing. I've been doing it for eight years now, the same worksheets where you kind of, you look back at the year and see, you know, like what worked, what didn't work.
00:38:22
Speaker
What did i hate what do i never want to do again and then what are the things that i've always wanted to do and haven't done yet um so i go through and make those lists and so and then there's a question like.
00:38:37
Speaker
you know, if you could have a perfect year, nothing went wrong, what would it look like? And I actually spend time, um I do kind of a visualization exercise where I write out like what my perfect day would look like, you know, the dream day. And I know for a lot of people, the dream day is like I wake up on a yacht and I, you know, And I'm on vacation. My dream day is like, I i mean, I feel like I'm living my dream life right now. Like I get to wake up and do what I love to do every day. So I spend some time kind of envisioning like, okay, what does my life look like like a year from now? And then, um,
00:39:17
Speaker
This always feels a little weird, but then i I ask myself, I like talk to that future version of myself, like, Hey, future Lori. um What are the things I need to do this year? Who do I need to become to to become you, that version of you? And I know this sounds so weird, but like she'll talk to you and tell you, oh, you need to be a person who um you know keeps commitments to herself, or you need to be a person who's more compassionate about what you can and cannot do.
00:39:49
Speaker
And it sounds so weird, but yes, who is you know what does my future life look like? And then talking to her and that interaction between the future and the present self.
00:40:01
Speaker
ah it that i don't know It works for me. It's very helpful. I'm always talking and thinking to my future self. I'm writing notes to my future self. Like all summer long when I do my crop notes, it's like I'm writing to the person I'm going to be in six months. ah So I do a lot of that, the visualization. I spend a lot of time going over um my income streams and going at it from ah a gut check feeling instead of logical. so
00:40:35
Speaker
I think there's a lot of wisdom in our gut and in our bodies. And I will i will ask myself, um do I want to do fill in the blank? And then I pay attention to immediately how my body feels. And if I feel like a little jittery and excited or maybe scared, that's a yes for me. Like fear is not a bad thing. But if I feel really like tight,
00:41:03
Speaker
um People can't see me but i'm like showing it my body like if i feel like my shoulders come up and i get really tight um or feel like scarcity or something like that. then i'm like I don't know i don't want to do that anymore that is something i want to move away towards so.
00:41:20
Speaker
Every year I try to move toward the things that make me feel excited or a little bit scared. um and that It hasn't led me wrong. so yeah Just spending that time to really get in touch with your gut feelings about things. and It's opposite of logical, right like because a lot of times our gut is not logical. yes I just feel like from the beginning, somehow the illogical has guided me every step of the way. so What else do I do? I love that.
00:41:53
Speaker
oh and then i One thing that's kind of cool is like I decide how much money I want to make on the farm too. So I decide how much money do I want to make and then I break it down into my streams of income and make the projections of how much I would have to make for each of those.
00:42:13
Speaker
And sometimes I look at those numbers you know and you're like, this is a logical or this can't work. And that's okay. like I don't have any problems with making goals that I know that maybe I can't meet them this year. ah But what that does is it expands my mind and like plants little seeds in my brain that that could be possible. Absolutely. Because if you don't think bigger than what you're thinking right now, yeah, you just limit yourself. So I try to always think bigger than what I think is logical. And a lot of times I don't meet those goals. And sometimes I do and totally surprise myself. So
00:42:54
Speaker
that's kind of that's kind of my process is a lot of reflection looking back at the year and then looking forward to where i want to go and then making projections for income and how i what i want to do i also spend a lot of time looking at um my lifestyle like is this the lifestyle that I want? you know Do I have enough time with my kids? Do I have enough time with my husband, with friends? I don't know about you, but a lot of farmers, we struggle to find time with our friends, you know our families here. but and That has been my past couple of years. like How do I make more time with friends? so That's definitely something I'm going to be thinking more about going into the year.
00:43:36
Speaker
I love that. It sounds like you're very intentional in everything you do. um And I love when you were talking about the challenges. I've had a coach this past year. yeah It was a really tough year. We lost our farm. And I i literally for a while thought, well, maybe I'm done flower farming. Maybe I'm going to close up. And I was like, you know what? My heart's still calling me to flowers. I don't want to give up. And so I hired a coach.
00:43:59
Speaker
at the opening of the year and it has been life-changing because we did that exactly we did everything you just talked about. like What do I want the year to look like and what do I want my future self to be? and It's what led me to my farm. But the one thing my coach said that was kind of like what you just talked about is, I love how she words it, she says that when you're taking something new on, it should feel somewhere between barf and butterflies.
00:44:23
Speaker
So if you're just feeling those butterflies, maybe you're not challenging yourself enough and you're probably pushing yourself too far when you're at that barf. And so are you somewhere, and I know it sounds so silly, but that's kind of what goes on here as I'm like, especially right now, this last week I've been spending visualizing what I want our farm to look like. And I'm like, okay, do I have butterflies or do I have barf or am I somewhere in between? And if I'm somewhere in between, I'm like, okay, I think I can,
00:44:51
Speaker
take on that challenge because it's like I'm starting all over. I i have the knowledge as a flower farmer from six years, but now I'm like, I'm starting on bare ground again. and exciting It's exciting, but I love so much of what you're saying and I'm sure it's resounding with so many of our other listeners today as well. So thank you for that vulnerability of sharing how you vision do your vision processing and plan for the next year. yeah I think it's so important that you have a plan in place because if you don't have a plan, you're going to go in circles. Exactly. and You'll just keep doing things and you'll burn yourself out. I mean that is i think that's the biggest um threat to farming is is burnout. But I wanted to circle back and say, I'm so glad that you worked with a coach. I have been working with a coach for almost the entire business. and I feel like that is what has made the difference is just having
00:45:46
Speaker
um someone who can kind of challenge you and get you to really think outside of yourself and expand what you think is possible. And that it's been it's been huge. So there, I mean, it can be a business coach, a mindset coach, a life coach, all different types of coaching, but it is really fantastic to have a coach in your business.
00:46:05
Speaker
and Sometimes you may even need to work with a therapist. right to work with We didn't talk about like your past self, but that you know working with therapists to help you with some of the past things and then a coach to help you with your future stuff. Absolutely. Those are really amazing tools for your business.
00:46:22
Speaker
It's amazing how much further you can go when you have someone supporting you. Because you're no longer, even if you're a solo solopreneur and farming by yourself, it's almost like you have a team through your coach because you have a snowboard and someone to help you figure out those difficult problems where you're like those internal struggles all of a sudden don't have to be so internalized anymore. Yeah, very cool. Did I hear that you're a coach also?
00:46:50
Speaker
I have done coach training, i don't have and I am certified, but I have not created a coaching business yet. I do some consultations for farmers, and sometimes it kind of goes into coaching. The way I think of this consultation is where I'm teaching and telling people what to do, whereas with coaching, I'm um showing people what's in their brain so that they can be empowered to figure out what they want to do. I think we spend a lot of our lives like, I just need someone to tell me what to do and how to make this work. Whereas the coaching like shows you that you have all the answers to all your questions inside of yourself instead of looking outside of yourself. So I use all the coaching techniques on myself every morning, you know writing my thoughts. I've got like my feelings wheel here on the wall that I'm using. but
00:47:41
Speaker
So yeah i self coach myself almost everyday and i think that is what has allowed me to keep going in this business cuz it's really hard the mental game is. It's tough you know you're fighting against so many circumstances that are out of your control so farming is just like the perfect occupation to learn how to.
00:48:03
Speaker
accept reality and what you can control and what you can't. And the only thing you can control is yourself and the way that you respond to things. And I know that sounds so simplified, but it is, I mean, it's revolutionary and life changing when you stop trying to change other people, but weather yeah the and you just work on yourself instead. That's, yeah, it's been amazing.
00:48:30
Speaker
I'm a control freak and I think philosophy has been so good from that standpoint that you literally have to learn to release know yeah so many things yeah because yeah you can't control the weather. You can't control the pests that come into your garden or there's so many yeah actors out of your control that I and Maybe had I known it I wouldn't have gotten into flower farming. yeah I'm so grateful that I did I know no I I was also a perfectionist when I started farming and I quickly got that beaten out of me and now I feel like that was actually been the greatest gift is learning to let go of that perfectionism and one thing I kind of wanted to talk about and tell people here is um
00:49:14
Speaker
I just plan on things going wrong. I plan on failure. I don't i don't feel like that's like pessimistic or negative in any way, shape, or form. I feel like it's just reality. like i Any year, I'm going to lose a third of my seedlings.
00:49:29
Speaker
and Now that I know I'm going to lose a third of my seedlings, I can plant extra just to fill that in. I just plan that things are going to go wrong. and Then I come up with contingenency contingency plans and backup plans and it just helps me prepare. and Then when things go wrong, you know some plants die. like I don't freak out and I don't get upset and I do not beat myself up anymore. and That has been so freeing.
00:49:56
Speaker
to just know, like, things aren't going to go wrong. I mean, people get so upset, like, oh my gosh, I killed a seedling tree. I'm like, oh, get used to it, girl. You're going to kill 100 more. like And it's totally fine. Just plant more. No worries. So yes, learning to let go of the perfectionism has made me a so like ah much better person. I like being around myself more. my family I'm easier to be around for my family.
00:50:22
Speaker
um Yeah, just learning to, you know, just accept it and take it and not make it mean so much. I love that. That is such a great lesson that we can all learn and continue to learn because it's a hard one that I always struggle with even when I think I'm starting to let go.
00:50:41
Speaker
my perfectionism will creep back in and it's like, okay, it doesn't have to be perfect. Sometimes done is better than perfect. Exactly. so It sounds like you giving up your bouquets would be a perfect move for you this year. Yes, it would. Now I just have to make my business plan fit so that I can bring this person on board and release that part. I would love to release the bouquet making. I love delivering the flowers and I love harvesting them and knowing that they come from my farm. But if someone else makes them and other people will receive them, that's 100% fine with me.
00:51:14
Speaker
I trained my farmhand to do bouquets this year and it is glorious and she loves it and I love that she loves it and I
Educating Home Growers on Flower Farming
00:51:22
Speaker
do the same thing. I can her harvest, I can make the seeding plans, but she loves doing that and it's it feels like such a gift to give her give her that responsibility and take that away from me at the same time. I love that. That's awesome. Okay, we've talked about that you have a coaching background and you also teach online. Can you tell us what do you teach?
00:51:44
Speaker
Yes, so at this point, um I have an online course where I teach home growers. So it's not necessarily for flower farmers, it's more directed at home growers how to grow a cut flower garden. And so I do a lot of that work of you know laying the foundation, what should you grow, how to grow, and I do it on a scale for home growers. I have plenty of people, I've got a couple hundred students in there, plenty of them have gone on to um take their hobby and turn it into a business. So, but I don't really touch on the business side in the online course because that's a whole other, like that's another course probably here in the future. But it's been really fun. I've been doing that class. I have that class I created probably five or six years ago and yeah, we have hundreds of students in there.
00:52:36
Speaker
And I keep adding new content to it. There's like a question and answer so they can ask their questions. And that way I can actually answer them because I was getting inundated with all those emails. And I'm like, i again, I can't spend you know eight hours a day answering people's questions in email. But I can spend time answering questions for my students in there. So it's very fun. They get um first dibs on all my daily YouTubers every year. So it's just a really cool community to have that. so It's called Backyard Cutting Garden 101. So you learn everything you need to know to grow a cutting garden right in your backyard. So it's been a lot of fun. And a cutting garden is so different than a flower garden.
00:53:16
Speaker
yeah Yeah, very much so. So that we spend a lot of time just talking about what is the difference and yeah how can you grow these plants because you can't get a lot of cut flower seedlings at your local plant nursery. So you know you got to learn the skills of starting seeds and all of that good stuff. But it is so fun because my students will send me pictures of like you know, their bare ground and then at the end of the season, they're all their beautiful flowers. It's it's really, really fun. um In my previous life before I was a farmer, I was a teacher. And so it's so it's fun for me to, you know, create a curriculum and have students. And I don't know, i teaching is probably my first first love. So that is in my plans for 2025 is how can I use my love of teaching more and expand upon that.
00:54:08
Speaker
I love that. So your course that you offer because we do have listeners that are not flower farmers. We also have a lot of backyard gardeners that listen to this podcast. Is your course always open for enrollment or are there certain periods where you open it up?
00:54:22
Speaker
it is mo Most of the time it's open for enrollment and I usually do kind of a big launch at the beginning of the year when everyone's, you know, getting seed catalogs and I'll promote it a little bit more than at the beginning of the year. But I believe I have it open for enrollment right now. Okay, so anyone listening that is wanting to start a cover garden this year could be another year. Yeah, it here it's fun. I've got people from um all over the world. So I have people like in New Zealand and South Africa and, you know, different hemispheres. So I have to remember too that, you know, different seasons. So, you know, I launch it usually in January, February, but I got to pay attention to the other hemispheres as well.
00:55:02
Speaker
Yes, I love that. I love that we have growing regions around the world. So when it's winter here, there's still beauty. That's one of the my favorite things about social media in the wintertime is seeing the New Zealand growers and people in the southern hemisphere sharing their flowers when everything is brown and gray outside. I'm like, yeah oh, there's some color.
00:55:22
Speaker
Yeah, we're um we're taking a vacation to New Zealand in a couple months here. And I just realized a few weeks ago that I timed it perfectly during their daily ah season. So I'm hoping to maybe connect with a couple other farmers in New Zealand and maybe see some flower farms when we're there. That is awesome. Very fun. um We have talked about so much and I feel like yeah I could talk to you for another couple hours. I've really enjoyed this conversation. Is there anything I haven't asked you today that you would like to share with our listeners?
00:55:56
Speaker
You, your audience, some of them are flower farmers, and newish flower farmers, and some are growers. There's probably a lot of people, maybe hobby growers thinking of becoming professional growers. um And Just a couple things that I would give for advice if anyone is deciding that they want to go from hobby growing to professional grower. um I think the biggest thing is just to have a lot of patience. We kind of talked earlier about trying lots of different things at the beginning, but another thing is just having patience and growing super slow. So I have done consultations with probably like anywhere, I think it's 65 to 70 farmers over the past couple of years.
00:56:41
Speaker
um and Generally, I would say for most people, it takes about five years for you to build up your business. and So in those five years, you know, how are you going to support yourself? I mean, like financially, but also mentally when the going gets tough, when you're like, this is really hard. I'm not making any money because farming is really expensive. You know, you could make a hundred thousand dollars in flower sales and have a hundred thousand dollars in expenses. Totally. You know, you're breaking even. In fact, that's very common. And I talked to many farmers, some farmers who had been farming for 10 years or more and still haven't paid themselves.
00:57:19
Speaker
So it's kind of like that ugly little truth that a lot of people don't talk about is that it just, it takes time to get to that point where you can pay yourself. So when we started our farm, I said, you know, hopefully I can pay myself by year five.
00:57:33
Speaker
Someone had told me that, my business mentors, I took lots of small business development classes, and they said, that's pretty realistic for any small businesses. It's usually year five. And so I just had that number in my head. allah We became profitable sooner than that, but I just had a really realistic expectation. So I never felt like I was doing anything wrong or that.
00:57:57
Speaker
I wasn't good enough or all those terrible things. it just I was like, everything's right on track. This is exactly how it's supposed to be going. So I think having that that realistic give yourself five years and also in the beginning, right like you're trying lots of things and you might not really figure out what's profitable for your farm until year five. And then another thing I would really recommend is having really strong boundaries between your business and your personal life as much as you can, like having separate bank accounts for the business and the personal life, um maybe even having separate areas for the the farm and then your personal
Balancing Business and Personal Life
00:58:38
Speaker
garden. like That's what I did this year, which was so fun, is I have my flower farm, which I have to make all the decisions you know based on profit margin and
00:58:50
Speaker
Is this going to sell? Is this a good fit? and so Everything has to be like super logical. um and so this year I made a new vegetable garden for myself that is just whimsy and delight and frivolousness. And that's where I'm like, Ooh, I want to try this flower. So I can try that flower in my personal vegetable garden. And it just gives me like a strong boundary between like, this is business, this is pleasure. And not to say that your business cannot be pleasurable, but it was it's been really great to have
00:59:23
Speaker
More separation in my life you know when I'm working when I am not working you know when am I going to have days off when am I not going to have days off just kind of pre deciding all of that ahead of time those boundaries are so important.
00:59:38
Speaker
It really is and creating boundaries for yourself and your customers. I don't check email after 5pm. I don't check Instagram or Facebook messaging. like i just I just don't you know because it was it it violated a boundary for me. I don't check social media on the weekends. you know Just stuff like that to create those boundaries to keep you safe and healthy in the long run. so it's it's A lot of it too is like If you have kids, they always tell you to like, when you have a baby, you're trying to get the baby to sleep. So you put them in the car and drive them around the neighborhood. It's like, well, do you want to keep doing that for the rest of their life? If not, you got to figure it out, you know, create the system right away. And I feel that with your business, like create a sustainable habits and systems that you can continue doing. Don't start doing things that are going to exhaust you right away.
01:00:30
Speaker
I love that. That is such phenomenal advice. Thank you, Lori, for sharing that. Yeah, absolutely. I have a question I'm going to put you on the spot again here but because you do so much vision planning and everything. I'm guessing, do you choose a you a word of the year?
01:00:47
Speaker
Sometimes I do, and sometimes I don't. And now that you say that, oh my gosh, I had a word that I came up with last week, and now I can't write it down. ah A lot of times, more it's more like a a feeling that I want to have going. So I know going into 2005, what I really need is is calm.
01:01:11
Speaker
like Yeah, i've it's building the business the last few years has been very hectic and hard, and i my body is telling me that through lots of different ways. And I was like, okay, I need to calm things down here for my body. so two thousand 2025 will probably be the year of like deeply caring for myself because I'm realizing that if I don't care for myself better, then I can't care for the business in the way that I need to. So how about you? Do you have a word for the year? Well, what made me think of asking you this is because you just said the word Wednesday.
01:01:50
Speaker
And um I'm choosing several words for this year, um but one of my words is whimsy. okay because Well, first, I'd never heard the word until this year. And Camille came on the podcast from Camille's Flowers up in Washington.
01:02:08
Speaker
back in May for Mother's Day. And she told me afterwards about a book called Love Does. And people used the word whimsy and the book used the word whimsy over and over. And ever since, I swear every week this year, I've heard the word whimsy and conversation. oh And it creeps in everywhere. We just came back from Thailand and I heard the word whimsy over there. And I was like, I just feel like this is a word we've had a very stressful year and building out the farm. When you were talking about challenges, I'm already trying to prepare myself like,
01:02:38
Speaker
I don't know what's going to go wrong, but I know there's going to be plenty of failures next year. ah Just yesterday, we thought, well, when we bought the farm, we knew there's irrigation to the property, but we didn't think it was on the property. Well, now that everything's dying back, I saw irrigation.
01:02:53
Speaker
lines and I'm going, oh, there is irrigation, but I don't even know where it's coming from. So there's when it turns on, there's going to be water somewhere. So okay, there needs to be an element that's just kind of whimsy. Like i want I want things to feel light and fun as we go through this process because moving a farm twice this last year and moving our house, it lasts a lot of that element of fun. So I want that whimsy feeling this year. So that's one of my words.
Maintaining Joy and Whimsy in Farming
01:03:19
Speaker
I'm so glad to hear that. So let me, we got time here. let me Let me quick tell you something. Okay. So talking about mindset and how your thoughts create your feelings and your actions. um um when When we got to the point in the farm that I was trying to retire my husband to have him come work full time with me, I had a thought in my mind, and my coach helped me uncover this. I had a thought in my mind that like, it is my responsibility to provide for my family. I have to provide all the money, like all this weight on my shoulder. And when I had that thought, it's my responsibility to provide for my family. I felt just sick to my stomach. Like you were talking about barf. You know, I felt sick to my stomach. I felt inadequate. I felt so terrible. I felt gross. It was just this awful, weighed down feeling.
01:04:10
Speaker
And you don't make progress in life when you're feeling that way. no And so she helped me come up with a new thought. And my new thought was, it is my joy and delight to provide for my family. And so I started writing that my journal every single morning. And that was so transformative because all of the energy, it completely changed the energy.
01:04:33
Speaker
From Graspy and desperate and like, oh my gosh, I have to do this. And to like, oh my goodness, I get to provide for my family. And at the time, like I wasn't making enough to provide fully for my family. But when I started adopting that thought of joy and delight, those were two of my words two years ago, was joy and delight.
01:04:54
Speaker
um Yeah, it shifted everything to have that mindset. So maybe you can have that like somehow incorporate that word, whimsy, and journal on that you know every morning. Just how can I have more whimsy and joy and delight in this life?
01:05:09
Speaker
It makes things more fun and when you're having fun you get things done. I love that oh and that joy and delight that mindset shift and that gratitude i know gratitude made all the difference like when i went from why is all of this happening to me to this is happening for me.
01:05:26
Speaker
When we found the farm, it was like instead of like these blinders of like why did all of this bad stuff happen this year, it was like, yeah well, maybe there is a reason that all of this is happening and with that mindset shift. Just like you said, it's a joy and a delight instead of I have to do this, yeah I get to do this. I just love that. so That's beautiful. It makes me a little bit teary that you said that. that is yeah That is a wonderful, powerful thought too that this is happening for me, not to me.
01:05:53
Speaker
that's oh That's so good. ah And you also just reminded my word for this year. I just remembered what it is. It's the word and. um I as a perfectionist was very black and white. Like it has to be either this or that. There's no in between. And that is my word for the year that it can be this and that. Whatever situation is going on in my life, I don't have to be so polarized.
01:06:17
Speaker
ah And I think that that even with our emotions, like I can be happy and sad at the same time. I don't have to be happy or sad. you know yes Life is complicated and has lots of gray areas, and I just really want to embrace that. that Yeah, that it's kind of the messy middle of everything. And that's that's where real life happens. I love that. It can be hard and fun. And good. And good, yes. well That's such a wonderful thing. Well, I tried for a really long time to get you on the podcast, partly because I was messaging you on social media.
Conclusion of the Podcast
01:06:51
Speaker
and you minutes Yes, and as soon as I messaged you on email, I got an an instant response from you and then you had a long delayed response from me because I need help with my email. But I really feel like it was a blessing to get you at this point in time because This conversation couldn't be more perfect this time of year, as and everyone is really in a season of reflection and planning. And I know that I have taken away so many amazing little nuggets from your words of wisdom, and I'm sure that so many of our listeners
01:07:25
Speaker
feel the same way. i mean I wrote down several things that I loved that you said when you said you are the limiting factor. I hope so many people can remember that as their plan to add business for the next year that the only thing holding you back is yourself. and Then when you said, I get to wake up and do what I love,
01:07:43
Speaker
for those that are flower farmers or those that are aspiring to be flower farmers this year, like what a powerful affirmation to tell ourselves. Like so many people wake up and say, I have to go to work, but we get to get up and play with flowers and bring beauty and joy into the world. So Lori, it has been such an honor and a delight to chat with you today. You mentioned that you do coaching and you have online classes and you have a community online. How can people find you that want more of Lori and Three Acres?
01:08:13
Speaker
Yeah so the i mean i'm on social media i'm on facebook and instagram and i do i post five days a week but i'm not super active and i don't check my messages so. um In fact i have a little autoresponder that will say email me instead so the best places to go visit my website which is w w dot three car farm dot net.
01:08:35
Speaker
If they go there, I have a really cool free guide for cut flower garden seed sewing. So when I was learning how to sow seeds, I was like, I just want like this cheat sheet that will tell me exactly when to start all of these flowers. And so I created that for everybody so they can go to my website and get that. um It shows you all the seeds you can start indoors, outdoors, you know, which method is best for where you live. It's really fantastic. I use the same one on my farm to figure out when to start things.
01:09:04
Speaker
So, they can go to our website, get that, and that will also put them on the email list so we can stay in contact. I send an email usually every Monday morning, which is like a um like call it the Three Acre Farm social media roundup. So, it's all my social media posts from the week before. And I started that because so much so many people in my audience like are not on social media or they're there for you know, they're avoiding social media for certain reasons. So this is a way they can still get all the information without having to be on social media. So I read that every Monday. People love it. So the crazy part is I send it at 6am every Monday. And if I like forget to schedule it, people will reach out and like, are you sick? Are you okay? Like I've been doing it for, I don't know, five years now. So it's very, um,
01:09:53
Speaker
Yeah, people really enjoy that. So yes, I would love to have you come visit our website, join our email list, because that's where I love to be. Excellent. Well, I will provide links to your social media and your website in today's show notes. Before we say goodbye, do you have any final parting thoughts or wisdom you'd like to share?
01:10:13
Speaker
Not that you haven't shared tense already. I know. I i feel like I just want to reiterate like our talk about perfectionism. and what did i write I was like, you're going to kill plants. It's 100% normal and an unexpected. Stop beating yourself up about that. Just move on. Allow yourself to be sad for like 30 seconds and then move on. and you're onto something new and that's what I love about farming is like every year is a clean slate and we get to start over and we always say on our farm like it's going to be great next year is going to be great and we say that every year yeah and every year it is like that is it's new beginnings all the time which is just so hope filled.
01:10:55
Speaker
Thank you. I love that. What a perfect way to end this episode. Thank you, Lori. We'd love to leave the door open to have you back again. Yeah, that'd be wonderful. Thank you and happy holidays. Yeah, you too. Have a great one. Thanks. Bye-bye.
01:11:11
Speaker
As we wrap up today's episode, remember to visit the show notes for a special gift, a free seven day trial to growth day. Just like we tend to our gardens, growth day can help you tend to your own personal growth, providing tools and teachings from the top motivational experts. Grab this chance to nurture your own garden of potential. Thanks for listening and keep blooming beautifully. See you next time.
01:11:37
Speaker
Thank you Flower Friends for joining us on another episode of the Backyard Bouquet. I hope you've enjoyed the inspiring stories and valuable gardening insights we've shared today. Whether you're cultivating your own backyard blooms or supporting your local flower farmer, you're contributing to the local flower movement, and we're so happy to have you growing with us.
01:11:58
Speaker
If you'd like to stay connected and continue this blossoming journey with local flowers, don't forget to subscribe to the Backyard Bouquet podcast. I'd be so grateful if you would take a moment to leave us a review of this episode. And finally, please share this episode with your garden friends. Until next time, keep growing, keep blooming, and remember that every bouquet starts right here in the backyard.