Here's a fun fact. I'm pretty excited because Sloan has found me two old pieces of foam, and I've created a little cocoon, a little cocoon for myself, and it is not glamorous. It is not flashy, but it does the job. So work in progress. People, baby steps every week can be an evolution and not a revolution. So hopefully the sound quality is significantly less echoy than it has been in the past. And I've also got the dog here too. So that's gotta help for acoustic stability bonus. Anyway, how are you? We are on the verge of getting into spring wedding season. It is the first week of September. The blossom is out. The Magnolia is out and it is beautiful. And my favourite time of the year, this whole spring thing, because it feels like there's a whole sense of possibility optimism, which I love. So going to jump into things this week, and I want to share my top five tips for building a relationship with your wholesaler. And as you know, you can't do much as a floral designer. If you don't have any flowers. And I wanted to talk you through just my experience in building relationships with wholesalers, a few little tip, some tricks, particularly things to think about if you live in Australia, but I guarantee you are relevant no matter where you live on this beautiful planet. But before I get too far into the good stuff, I wanted to start with something great, which is this week's review of the week from my girl, Judith, plain and simple, totally living my life via this podcast. Right now today's episode on regaining creativity was like a therapy session that I could have easily paid a professional big box for. Thanks, Kathleen, for such a quality podcast. I know it sounds cliche, but your information and presentation is really life changing. So I read that and I go, who are you talking about? But thank you, Judith plain and simple for going in and leaving a review. And I am so excited that this is happening and that I took my friend Kelsey's advice and started a podcast. And my girls from the Ponderosa & Thyme workshop last year, it's just been such an incredible blessing. So that's fun. And the other thing I wanted to share with you guys, and this almost moves me to tears because it's a bit crazy, but Sloan was doing a little bit of digging, looking at our podcast statistics last week. And he actually counted up how many different countries this podcast is listened to. I don't think that is how you speak the English, however, 35 countries. So if at any point you believe that you are in this by yourself. Here is a fact, this podcast, this little experiment, this little journey that I have endeavoured on is now been listened to in 35 different countries around the world. I don't think I could name 35 countries. I don't think I have that knowledge. However, I am astounded. I am gobsmacked am blown away by the fact that there are people in different parts of the planet. And I will ask you if you live in any part of this planet earth, I would so love for you to take a quickie little screen grab and tag me at Little bird Bloom on Instagram and shout out what little part of this planet you are tuning in from, because I think this is crazy 35 countries. Crazy. So just take that in and let's circle back and remind ourselves that if you ever think you are in this by yourself, if you ever feel frustrated, isolated, and alone, remember that there is somebody else listening in one of 34 other countries, and I can guarantee you, there may even be somebody else in your own country listening, which is just insane. So thank you guys for jumping in being part of this and for just being up for this little journey, because it's going to turn into good stuff. I know it is. And my brain is just spinning with 8,000 ideas as per the use learning to be patient and learning to take things one step at a time. But in this world of spiralling ideas, we are literally in a little bit of a low, quiet, intentionally pausing periods between what I know is gonna be a crazy, hectic, but super fun wedding season that kicks off in 10 days. So I am embracing the not flowering for other people persona. And I have been head down, bum up revamping the whole course and launching our business masterclass, which is going to open up for registration again in October. So going to be sharing all the good things about pricing, branding, setting your product list, building a team, putting a filter on this content to make sure that it's super practical, actionable, and literally literally outline every single step that you need to take to build your business. And just as importantly, I will talk you through the mistakes that we made so that you don't have to make the same ones because they are plentiful very plentiful. And we are revamping the course so that it be much more regardless of what sector of this industry that you work in. I have begun to realise we come from a very, very unique perspective. Having owned a retail flower business, having built a wedding and events business from scratch, living in a small town, operating in Australia, all of the things, right? So talking about funerals events, everyday flowers, workshops, weddings, corporates, you name it. We have experience with it. And I am happy to share with my students the good, the bad, the ugly, but more importantly, what works and what works well and where you should be spending your time and energy. We are creating a whole in-depth workbook plus plus, and this is my favourite bit. We have created an online community and we are going to be hosting live training sessions two different times in the week so that it can work for you wherever you are in the world. So we'll have an evening time here in Australia, which will be in the morning time over in the UK and Europe. And then we're also gonna have a morning time because that will appeal to all of my kids in north America, right? This is like a worldwide global phenomenon is what's gonna be happening here. So if you want in, if you want in and learn, when registration opens simply visit for florists.com, link will be in the show notes and registration will open up last week of September. You'll get immediate access to all the good stuff. And then the live training start in October. Oh my God, it's gonna be so good. And pretty much I wish I had this course three years ago. And I am just so incredibly excited to be able to package all this stuff up and share it with you guys and get on the wait list. And you can just know that you will get immediate access to all of my experience, knowledge, the good stuff, and the stuff to avoid and bonus. You guys know this. If you're already one of my existing online students, but you will automatically get access to all the good stuff that's happening in October. So as a little, thank you for jumping in early, so much good stuff. And I am going to outline my top five tips for building a relationship with your wholesaler. Here is a fun fact. You are a floral designer. You can't design with much. If you don't have access to a grower, a garden, a wholesaler, some sort of place where you can buy the flowers, or you could possibly cut them from your own farm or your own garden. So your success of your business rely heavily very heavily on your relationship with your suppliers and your wholesalers are an integral part of your business offering. If you put the energy and effort into building a relationship with your growers and your wholesalers that puts you and your business at a distinct advantage over the competition, because you could have access to very specialist, locally grown, beautiful, one of a kind product. I highly recommend that it's worth the time and energy in building a relationship with your wholesalers, because I truly believe your relationship with your wholesalers is one of those things that the amount of time and energy you put into them is exactly what you will get out of them. I want to spend a little bit of time telling you guys about what it's like to be a wholesaler. Now I have never wholesaled flowers myself, but I have a huge admiration and appreciation for the people that I work with, who I pay to supply me with flowers, because they can make or break your business. They can make or break your mood. So let me explain a little bit about how they operate. So in many cases, if you're dealing with a wholesaler, they might actually be the grower of their own flowers. If you deal with any of the growers or wholesalers at the Sydney flower market here in Australia, it is a requirement that for them to show up at the market, they have to have grown something, right? So everyone who has a stand at the city of flower market is required by, I'm gonna say by law, I don't know if it's a law they're required by the holders of the Sydney flower market to be a grower of flowers. They are also allowed to be the importer or the wholesaler of other people's product as well. But at a bare minimum, they must be able to show that they are responsible for growing flowers themselves. There are many considerations that they have to come to the table with the first thing and the biggest thing outta their control. Although all four of these things are all out of their control, but they are dealing with mother nature, right? So if you are a grower of flowers, you are 100% at the mercy of mother nature, unless you have the money to have your on set of greenhouses. In which case, I cannot imagine that you're listening to this podcast because you are on the path for world domination. So if you are dealing with a grower, they are at the mercy of mother nature, right? It is very common and becoming more and more common and will continue to be common for there to be heat, waves, storms, random, snow storms, multiple days of rain, multiple days of drought... We have no control over mother nature, zero zilch, nada. Remember that the growers of flowers are at mother nature's mercy. The second thing that they, I may or may not have to deal with, particularly in Australia is restrictions around imported product. So Australia, California, I'm sure some parts of Europe and many other places on this planet. I've never been to have to deal with and have put in place very strict import, agricultural rules and regulations. In Australia, somebody is importing product from overseas, they need to have proof like literal written evidence. Sometimes I'm sure even like photographic evidence that the product that they are imported are not going to negatively impact the agricultural industry of this beautiful country. So the wine industry in particular is massive in Australia. If somebody were to import product that did not meet the Australian agricultural requirements, meaning that they have been dipped in every God knows chemical out there, it could potentially have a massive impact on the agricultural and the wine industry in this country, which would be massively detrimental. There is a whole world of import regulations that our wholesalers need to manage. Never underestimate the fact that the government is playing our own little parts in managing what products can come into this country with that also comes the challenge of trying to coordinate international distribution. I have always envisioned that there are roses that are grown in Africa and grown in south America that are transported on donkeys from farms to a distribution centre that are then packaged up on a truck, then put on an airplane and then flown halfway around the world to get to us in Australia. That is a lot of travel to coordinate. And if somebody is trying to place an order for a specific bundle of toy roses, it has to come by donkey to the distribution centre, get on a truck, get on an airplane, and then magically arrive in Australia. There's a lot of energy and effort that goes into making that coordination happen. The fourth thing that your wholesaler is dealing with is the global demand of flowers. If Kim Kardashian decides to throw the most epic birthday party for one of her family members and wants to have 1 million red roses made available, she is entitled to do that. None of us running our little flower operation building, our little flower empire is going to know that that's on Kim Kardashian's radar. Possibly she'll talk about it on Instagram, but if you like me and you do not follow her, then you're not gonna have a bloody clue that that is what she has on her agenda in the coming weeks. And therefore you may or may not get access to red roses. Should Kim Kardashian decide to plan the most epic birthday party of any birthday party you've ever seen? So when you are talking to your wholesalers and your growers, the purveyors of flowers, keep in mind that they are dealing with mother nature. They are trying to manage and sort through the import restrictions that are put on them within their state or their country. They're also trying to work with growers from overseas to coordinate, travel, and trying to also coordinate and manage things within a global demand of flowers. What blows my mind is that you can show up at the San Francisco flower market. You could walk down 27th avenue. I think it is 27th street in New York. You could probably go to Amsterdam. You could probably go to a small wholesaler in man. Everybody is going to actually have a very similar selection of flowers. And then they're going to have other elements that are supplemented by local producers. There is an actual global demand for flowers that is managed, and you only ever get to understand about it when you actually talk to your whole sailors and do a little bit of research to understand the ecosystem in which they operate. So keep your eyes open. Don't be shy about asking questions and understand when you're talking to your wholesaler, they are trying to balance and predict what's happening with mother nature. What's happening with import rules and regulations, trying to coordinate international, sometimes even just domestic travel situations and navigate the world of global demand of flowers. None of these things are in their direct control of how your wholesaler operates, right? If businesses are built on relationships, then your relationship with your wholesaler then also relies on their relationship with their suppliers. So if the donkey that's in south America, doesn't make it to the distribution centre. And on the back of that, donkey is your bundle of roses. That means it's not going to make it on the airplane, which means it's not going to make it to the flower market in time for your event. I will tell you this now, and I will tell you many times do everything in your power to keep your ingredient list as broad as possible, because it is not, it is not your wholesaler's responsibility to make sure that that donkey has showed up at the distribution centre in south America. I'm sure they will try their best, but it's out of their control. So remember that if you are ever dealing with internationally imported product, there is a whole world of logistics that goes into what's happening. And if you're dealing with domestic product, never under estimate the power of mother nature and what three days of rain or three days of drought are going to do to impact flower availability, right? So keep these things in mind. Your wholesaler is dealing with mother nature, import restrictions, travel logistics, as well as the overall global demand of flowers. Needless to say eight, eight, easy on top of all of that. The other thing to realise is that your wholesaler runs a for profit business, right? They are not simply in this to pass the product over to you at the cost that they may have bought it from somebody else at. They are probably only making a 10 to a 20% markup on the product that they have gotten from another grower. So it's fair to say that there absolutely is a direct between the amount of product that you buy and how important a customer you are. I don't give any of the wholesalers grief for treating the big wig, floral designers in Sydney, with way more importance than me, that doesn't make me any less of a valuable human being. It doesn't mean that my contribution to the planet is any less important. What it means is that that wholesaler is doing right thing for their business and focusing in on the most profitable and the highest volume customers. So what do you do, whether you operate in Sydney or outside of Australia in Vancouver, in California, in New York city, what do you do? Build a relationship with your wholesaler. I got you five tips today. And the first one be kind remember at the end of the day, you are dealing with human beings. I truly believe if you treat people the way that you want to be treated, you make eye contact, you say, hello, how are you doing? You pick up on the general vibe that they're giving off, that they will do the same to. You never, ever forget. Particularly if you are in Australia and you are going to the flower market, these people have been up all night. And I don't think I do not believe the human body is meant to be awake when the sun is not shining. So these people who have been up all night and are a bit punchy, a little bit and dealing with other tired human beings may be a little bit cranky. They're allowed to feel the way that they feel if they snap at you, if they're a bit dismissive and if they're a bit you that's okay, right? You don't need to be back to them. You can simply say, please, and thank you. And remember that they are doing the best that they can. And they're trying to make the most of what they have also remember. Many of the growers that you deal with are farmers, right? They don't sit at a desk and answer emails. They don't necessarily jump on Instagram and talk to the camera. They're not standing around taking pretty pictures. They're not worried about which lipstick goes with which eyeshadow or if they should wear that pair of earrings or this pair of shoes. They are farmers. And in many cases, they come from multiple generations of farmers. They are cut from a totally different fabric than you and I. Their world is probably as different to yours as it can come. What is keeping them up at night, probably staffing farm equipment. Either that hailstorms going to come, did they buy enough of this product? Have they bought too much of that product? Geez. I hope that blush is still something that's in demand. I hope that I can get my hands on this. And I hope that that thing doesn't completely implode. And what am I gonna do with my irrigation system? And I need a million dollars to invest in a new shed. These are their real concerns, whether or not your bundle of roses shows up is not on the top of their list. So don't take it out on them. Treat them kindness and treat them the way that you would want to be treated. In fact, I reckon that's a pretty good lesson for life. Go out and treat people the way that you wanna be treated. Make eye contact, say hello, say please. And thank you. Point number two, pay your bills. Do not be that girl who decides that over winter, during your slow season, it's okay to NOT pay your bill for 90 or 120 days. You are impacting their cash flow. They are not a bank. They are not somebody who has given you a loan for a few thousand dollars, because you cannot ground with the cash to pay your bills, pay your bills and pay them quickly. If you're anything like me, you probably get your invoices, sit down and once a week, pay your bills unless you have a thousand other things going on. In which case, then you'll sit down once a month and you'll do it, make it a regular part of your system, pay your bills. And if you treat their business seriously, they are more likely to take yours. Seriously. Yeah. Point number three. And this is a lesson I've only really learned in the last few years that I actually take seriously point number three, keep your options open. One of my favourite questions that I keep coming and circling back to is what would it look like if it was easy, when it comes to planning for weddings and events, what would it look like? If it was easy, it would mean you get to rock up to the wholesaler and buy whatever the heck you want in the colour palette of your choice. It means you have not committed coral peonies to your client in the first week of July. It means you have kept your options open and you have said, oh, I will absolutely try my to get you that Quicksand rose, but understand that there is a global demand for this product. And if Kim Kardashian decides to have a Quicksand rose party, you may or may not get your order. So this starts with managing your client's expectations and educating them on the fact that there is a global demand for flowers, and yes, you will absolutely try your darnedest and talk to every single person you know, about sourcing your particular, favourite blooms, but anything that you can do to keep the options open with your client means that you can be open to alternatives. When you rock up to your wholesaler, it means you don't need to throw a temper tantrum when your roses have not arrived in time. So anything you can do to educate your clients on the ins and outs of where flowers come from, how it's managed at your particular wholesaler, and the fact that we are at the mercy of mother nature presents you as an expert, but in also keeps your options open with your client. So what would it look like if it was easy, you would have a very broad brief with your wholesaler point number four, invest in the time and effort to build a relationship with your wholes and your growers. At the end of the day, they are human beings, human beings like being treated with respect. They also like presents. Most of them, something as simple as buying a bottle of booze at Christmas or the beginning of wedding season, or just before mother's day or just after Valentine's day will get you a long way, simply acknowledging and thanking them for their help will also get you a long way. Here's the thing. If you don't own a super high volume, most likely retail or wedding and events business, you need to earn the respect of your wholesaler in a new way. You can absolutely earn your respect of your wholesaler by building a personal relationship with them. I know for a fact, when we took on the retail shop, because it has been in existence for more than 30 years, it has been one of the single longest standing business relationships that our wholesalers have at the Sydney Flower Market. So I walked into a space where there was really great trust, beautiful relationships, and an understanding of the quality of product that needed to be delivered. We also put in three fairly substantial orders with our wholesalers three times a week. The volume that that shop turns over is crazy. And it meant that from the very beginning, our wholesalers knew that they could trust us that when I asked and when I called in a favour, they would do their best to deliver. So what do you do when you're on the other end of the spectrum? And you're just starting out and you're like trying to figure out who do I even order through, find people that you connect with and treat them like human beings. People that you can ask your questions to so that you can learn and understand directly from the source, how to successfully order flowers from your wholesaler. Some people like email. Some people like text, some people like asking questions. Some people like sending through specific names of flowers. Some people like just sending color palettes, whatever works for you and whatever works for your wholesaler. Put the time and energy into building a relationship and asking questions, say, hi, ask them how their dog is. Talk to 'em about their kids. Do whatever you can to understand what their world looks like. What challenges are they facing? What's keeping them up at night. What's frustrating them. How can you help them? How can you make their job easy? Don't ever be shy about asking questions. And if you come across somebody who doesn't wanna answer your questions, I can guarantee you that there's somebody else out there who would be more than willing to supply you with flowers and more than willing to answer your questions. I will also say taking the time to ask questions of your growers and your wholes automatically increases your knowledge and confidence and experience within this industry, which you can immediately turn around and use to educate your perspective. Clients with here is something that I only recently found out, which I find fascinating, but I also think the world needs to know about the, this. So I was doing a little bit of research around the American flower industry and the slow flower movement. And what's happened in the past few years where all these flowers are coming in from overseas. And I'm loving the fact that there's so many more domestic growers of flowers and small. I don't know if they refer themselves as like micro farms where they're growing a whole bunch of shiz and being able to supply that product directly to florists within their footprint. It's like these things can come within like 50 or a hundred miles. And I think that is amazing. However, part of the background of this story is that I learned the American government sends a huge amount of money to farmers in Columbia to make it financially viable for them to grow roses instead of cocaine. When we say that there is a whole world of managing the logistics around the global demand of flowers, it is way more intricate and complicated than I could ever have imagined. There is a department of the American government that literally works with the farmers in Columbia to make sure that it is financially viable for them to be growing roses instead of cocaine. This whole world is crazy, but that is why there are so many roses that are coming in from Columbia. Yes, it is good place to grow roses. However, it is massively subsidised by the American government. So it does indeed create some challenges for domestic flower growers, but taking that information on the surface of it is just purely fascinating. Instead of necessarily turning to your client and saying, yeah, no, it'll be easy I would hedge your bets, take a little bit of time to educate them on the wide supply and demand of flowers, show them what, you know, educate them on your expertise and demonstrate to them that flowers do not come from a machine and make it easy on yourself and open up the brief for the specific product that you are going to use in your floral arrangements. And the only reason that I know that story is because I have invested a lot of time and energy. And I am generally curious about how this whole world works and I am happy and loving building relationships with the wholesalers because it's a world I know nothing about, and it's an incredibly intimidating world. I am also happy to go out there and share everything with you guys, because it's also fascinating, but it's incredibly helpful for us to understand the world that they are operating. So coming back to my points, point number five, never forget that your wholesaler is running a four profit business. Most of their revenue, like 80% of their revenue is going to come from 20% of their customers. If you, dear listener have been in business for less than five years asterisks, unless you've bought an existing business, it's been in around for a while. Do not take it personally. If they don't have a bloody clue who they, who you are, or they're a bit dismissive of you. So our experience at the Sydney Flower Market, there is a handful of florists who show up three, sometimes four, possibly even five days a week who buy flowers every single time that they go and have been doing this for more than 10 years. If you think about the fact that they're at the market, let's say 60 to 90 minutes per go. They are going four times a week, and they're there 52 weeks of the year. And they've been doing this for 10 years. They have invested a huge, like proportionately massive amount of time in building their relationship with those wholesalers. So do not newbie florist do not take it personally, if you rock up and they're like, who are you? Because the people in front of you have been doing this for hundreds of hours. And I reckon case study of one me. I went once a week, every week for four and a half years, and probably only about three and a half years into that four and a half year window, did I start to feel like I understood what was happening, how I needed to show up at the market. So patience, it just takes a bit of patience. And the more time you spend going to the wholesalers, the more time you spend, even just in that environment, the more comfortable you will become do not take it. Personally. If the person in front of you runs a business that everyone else knows about, and then you get complete dismissed by the wholesaler, you are not a bad human being because of it. You just haven't put in the time and energy yet. So my top five tips be kind, pay your bills, keep your options open and try to avoid committing to any specific ingredients. Number four, invest the time and energy and effort to build and connect and create a relationship with your wholesalers because they are human. Just like you. And point number five. Remember your wholesaler is running a for profit business. I will also jump in here with a little bit of a story, because I think this is brilliant. There is a group of florists who get 99.9% of their product from a local grower. They do not need to wake up at four o'clock in the morning, do not need to worry about FedEx. They do not need to worry about the ins and outs of what's happening at the massive reseller wholesalers, because they have decided to build a relationship with their local growers. I think this is phenomenal. I will say just because you see everybody else on Instagram, waking up at the crack of dawn, disrupting their sleep and going to the wholesaler doesn't mean that you automatically have to do it that way for your business. If you wanna put in the time and energy and do some research and understand who is growing flowers in your area and build a relationship with them, it's going to put you at a distinct advantage because you are gonna have access to specialist products. You're going to have things that are in season, and it's going to be beautiful. The one major caveat is that you need to be managing your client's expectations and you need to be okay with showing up with lots of flexibility in terms of the actual product you have access to. So it means you can operate your business, committing to specific products for your customers, but it opens up a whole other world of possibility and talk about what would it easy? What would it look like if it was easy? If you could rock up to a local farmer who has two to five acres of product, walk into their cool room and just take what you want and then pay the bill. Amazing. That sounds to me like a kid in a candy store. And if you don't have to drive an hour and a half to get to the Sydney Flower Market even better. So I highly, highly, highly encourage you to do two things. One invest in and build a relationship with your local wholesaler or wholesaler, and two do some digging on Instagram on the Google’s, Facebook and see who is growing flowers in your area. We are incredibly fortunate. One of the world's best dahlia growers who owns and operates a two acre farm within two kilometers of our house. That is crazy. There is also native growers who are all within 30 kilometers of us. There's beautiful farms that are just like half an hour north of us. And as always, I know that we have the Sydney Flower Market. That's an hour and a half away from us. You are allowed to go out and start to build relationships with the local growers of products, just because everyone else goes to the big wholesaler doesn't mean that that's the way that you have to do it. I will just leave you with that thought today, because it's really opened my eyes up to the fact that all of us who operate in Australia and, and particularly all of you guys who push yourself to get outta bed, to go to the Sydney Flower Market, there is a different way to go about it. Just because everybody else is doing it on Instagram, doesn't mean that that's the way that you have to do it. You could decide if you wanted to, instead of getting up at four o'clock to go to the Sydney Flower Market, you could get up a at eight o'clock and drive south and come to one of the farms in the Southern Highlands and pick up your product directly from there each to their own, right? Open your eyes to the possibilities. And don't be shy about supporting those independent farmers anyway. So those are my top five tips, plus a bonus plus, a lot of blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. But hopefully that's helpful if you've got any other questions, always never forget message me, email me all of the good things. And if you're listening to this, I would love it. If you took a screengrab, post it on Instagram and tag me at Little Bird Bloom and let me know where you're turning in from, because that would be amazing to be able to show everybody in this world, this little tsunami of goodness that's happening in the underground of floristry. And if you feel so compelled, definitely go in, in the review on iTunes, because that's really helpful for me. And then for you, cuz it means that more people will be listening and we can just create more goodness. And if you are all inclined and want to jump in and sign up for our October business masterclass for florist, then all you need to do is go to for florists.com. Link is in the show notes, put your name on the early bird notification list. And I will email you and let you know when registration opens. And I'm so bloody excited because I think it's going to be exactly what I wished I had taken three years ago and could have just skipped over three years of pain and suffering. But I did all of that. I learned so much, so much I can share it with you and you don't need to go through that pain and suffering and we can grow our businesses together. So let's all join hands, eat a lollipop and skip through the fields of daisies, butterflies and unicorns. Shall we? And I hope you have a beautiful week. I shall see you on the Instagrams. And let me know if you have any questions. Bye for now. Hey, if you enjoy this podcast, I want to invite you to join us inside Flower Boss Bootcamp. This is my step by step program, your blueprint to building a six figure flower business. We talk marketing money and managing your mindset. So you can streamline your approach and grow your business faster. All, well being surrounded by a private community of like-minded flower fairies. And it's totally risk free. Flower Boss Bootcamp comes with a money back guarantee. So stop trying to figure it all out on your own. Join us inside the program today and get immediate access to the curriculum and get the clarity you're craving. All you have to do is visit flowerbossbootcamp.com and I'll see you inside the program.