You can get caught up in the beauty of flowers who wouldn't get caught up, but to be successful, you need to have a blueprint and a business plan
Welcome to how we bloom a podcast, offering an Oasis of flower ideas. I'm your host, SharonMcGukin AIFD, AAF, PFCI. And I believe that every great success story starts with one simple idea. That's why we interview guests who dare to do things differently. People who plant seeds, grow ideas and bloom to their full potential. We listen, learn, and that's how we bloom.
I first met today's guest Lia Fleming several years ago at a Smithers Oasis north America photo shoot for 27 years. Lia has been the full-time art director at Triad, a design and market firm in Akron, Ohio, Lia, and her Triad team worked closely with Kelly mace and our design directors team to create marketing materials for retail and wholesale customers. This included email marketing, social media print, and trade show materials and overall creative solutions. One day after a shoot Lee and I had a great conversation about floral marketing. It was obvious that Leah was a pro loved her work. And in the process of working with flowers, she was developing a passion for them on a farm located just outside the Akron city limits in new Franklin township. Leah's family established flora fields farm in 2019 for the past three years, Leah's flower, passion has taken root and the family farm is now growing a field of flowers, adding local flower farmer to Leah's already impressive resume. I recently asked Leah how she was able to grow her dream into a reality in such a short space of time. She shared her story along with some practical marketing and branding tips that you can use to bring your flower business into full bloom. Welcome to how we bloom Leah.
Hi Sharon. Thanks for having
We are so excited to have you share with us your journey into the flower fields. And I know that you have tremendous experience with your ad agency, and I see your work very often through Smithers Oasis north America. So we're just really interested to hear the tips that you have to share with us.
Thank you. We're going to begin so many tips,
Things that we're really interested to hear Leah is how you made the transition from advertising exact to flower farmer. And I know a lot of it goes back to your basic expertise.
Well, thank you. Um, it was combination of things. Um, I had definitely developed an understanding of the floral industry from the work I had done with Smithers Oasis north America. Um, basically when I have a client, I kind of absorb myself into their industry because I wanna learn, um, everything about their industry. I want to know about what the viewer see, I want to know about local customers. Um, so I kind of absorbed myself. So I followed different social media accounts. I did lots of web searches. I follow blogs, listen to podcasts, and I'm a hundred percent. I was, I really was intrigued. Um, and it was also helpful for the marketing that I did. I was able to really have a better understanding. Now that's one of the benefits of working for an ad agency. You get to really learn about different industries and, um, it really kind of broadens your perspective.
Um, I was not really familiar with the floral industry. I obviously, you know, flowers who doesn't, um, but for me, starting a fire farm, was it combination of access to land? Um, that's probably one of the biggest, um, barriers that people have is having access to grow. Um, so once I learned about this slow flower movement, I was intrigued by it. Um, I also had done some work for another client of ours who did nonprofit work and entrepreneurial education. And I was very intrigued also by this. Um, they really put out lots of surveys and material about entrepreneurial education from, you know, every age group from elementary to high school, to college level and really, um, you know, businesses to help them be more entrepreneurial. And what I realized is kind of creativity and entrepreneurialship really kind of go hand in hand because I think to be creative, you have to not be fearful and to be entrepreneurial, you also have to not be fearful. So I had that background, I had the land and I also had a college age daughter who was a business major. And I thought that opening a business and going through that process with her would be very educational. So lots of things kind of came together in my mind and they just sort of happened.
Well, I think you had another advantage in addition to the land, you had a family that was interested. I love that your family works with you in the flower farm and that you were using it as a means of training for your daughter. And I think that's a tremendous advantage that you have also speak to us about how you use your expertise in branding to create this new brand with the right,
Um, branding. Obviously when you do your own branding, it's not that it's more difficult, but you definitely have a kind of a fine eye on what it is that you want your image to be since I do that so often. So for so many other people, when it came down to doing mine, I, I CA I came to the conclusion that it had to be clean and simple, and that the product had to speak for itself. Um, after my first growing season, I realized that I had something really awesome. I had a really beautiful product and that it really spoke for itself. So for fields farm the naming in itself, um, it was not an easy process on the name. Flora came from a children's book that my daughter had when she was young called Flores blanket. So she had picked flora. Uh, the floor field's farm is a mouthful, but it really had to do with, um, making sure that we could get the URL that was available and making sure we could get the social handles to match. Um, that's very important. A lot of times people pick a name of a business, and they're not really thinking about all the different pieces parts. So you can find a name that you really love, but it doesn't mean it's going to be available. So you need to be kind of open and flexible. Um,
Sometimes I think it's important too, that it's a name that can be shortened so that it's, it's like a nickname of a family member or something. And that was one thing I noticed yours could easily be shortened to flora, you know, as in, I'm going to run over to the floor and that's some flowers
You caught onto that because that's exactly where we were going. So my URL is long, the name is long, but I don't necessarily use it. So in my logo, I emphasize flora and I use typography and I created kind of a brand ID for myself. So it's almost like the rules and guidelines that we need to follow to make sure my brand is consistent. So we use similar colors, we use the same type of geography, um, and I don't have a per se, a logo or an icon. And that was intentional at this time. Um, because I just wasn't sure where I wanted the business to go.
So do you feel that flexibility is an important part of establishing
It's flexibility, especially in this day and age and the way things are changing? Um, you need to be flexible. Um, there were weren't many years ago that we were creating marks and now, you know, that same mark needs to be applied to 10 different mediums. So you really have to make sure it's not that your remark is just flexible, but you have alternatives as it workforce. Not only does it work vertical, does it work, you know, in a circle? So
For our listeners, when you say mark, you, um, are you referring to the logo, correct?
Now that you have established what your brand is and you know your product, and I'm sure you've done homework to figure out who your customer is - how did you begin to market that product in your local area?
I can honestly say the first thing I did was then, obviously besides the farming part, I had to learn how to grow. An I grew this product and once it grew, I had to sell it. So, I woke up one day and I had all these flowers. I had already established a website, already established social media. So really social media is where I started building my audience. What I did is really just share with people what we were doing. I was sharing kind of our journey and I didn't want to necessarily show them the hardships. I wanted to show them the pretty part. So we started branding to really highlight what we were selling, which was beautiful, fresh grown, farm flowers. We used our social stories to make more of a human connection about what we were doing. So sometimes people have this disconnect that, you know, in order to get fresh flowers, you need to actually get up in the morning and pick them. So, I might get up and show a picture on my story, which is not your Instagram posts. It's the behind the scenes of a beautiful sunset and getting up early and really, really sharing the joy that I had doing the work that we were doing.
So in sharing your flower story, you were in essence sharing your personal story when people connect to other people emotionally, I think.
yeah, I would say that I would say probably what happened initially is I wasn't selling to retail. My initial aspect was to sell to forests and to wholesalers. And I want what my thought was to grow more of a high quality product and more of an event product. Um, so I started with more specialty flowers, even my first season that was learning. Um, I, I kind of went in kind of, you know, excited and wanted the best song, which is fine, but what I realized, um, this adventure that due to my schedule and my family schedules, I really had to pick something that would work for our schedules. So coordinating with wholesale enforced takes a lot of time and commitment. Um, and what I found is my followers wanted it wanted direct access to what I had. Um, and so I didn't necessarily, I wasn't really open to having people come to the farm. Initially it took a full year before I was open to that idea because I wanted maybe my space. And I just wanted to make sure where I knew where the business is falling. Um, so the first year we really didn't do any farm sales. Um, the second year, once I built up this audience, I realized that they really, to Mandy more direct access to things, which was great because that's actually when COVID hit and the demand was overwhelming.
Well, and I think you've mentioned to me in the past that there was a real pleasure. Once you did allow people to come to the farm and you saw their joy at being in the natural setting, that that just really made it even more passionate for you. Yeah.
Yes. Um, there's no doubt when somebody sees a farm, they're usually shocked. They usually come up the drive and they look, the farm stand is right next to the garden. And we did that intentionally. We thought about putting the sand down by the side of the road, but we want people to come up the drive. We want them to come now into our space and we want them to see, see what we're growing. And people are usually surprised. I don't in this area. It's not very common though. There are other local growers and that's something else that I also encourage is for people to learn about all their local growers. Um, it's, it's not just about what we grow. If we don't have it, I encourage somebody to reach out to any Weller.
You have mentioned the word learn a number of times. I had to learn how to farm the flowers. I had to learn how to reach out to the customers you've learned of my competitors. So let's take a step back and say in the beginning, how did you learn how to farm flowers? Did you read, study, take classes,
No classes, reading. I did a lot of reading. I, I spent a whole winter absorbing myself and the internet and I didn't pay for any classes. I didn't take any work workshops. There are plenty out there. There are plenty farming classes and I would probably recommend them. Um, I probably learned the hard way by doing and failing, but that's okay. That made me a better grower the next year. And honestly, this is my third growing season and I'm sure I will continue to learn in the next 10 years.
Oh, every day forever. Yeah,
Absolutely. Yeah. I agree with that. Absolutely. Um, so definitely it's, it's not just learning about farming and growing at one point, you just gotta get your feet wet. You actually have to do the hard work and you have to get out there and you have to plan, but you have to amend the soil. You have to get a soil test. You have to, uh, have a crop plan. You have to have a S so you've got to start the seeds. So really that year that we first started, um, March, we were starting seeds inside. So it's, it's a pretty crazy process, but it's, it's pretty, once you get started, you could get hooked real easily.
That's very cool. Now you alluded to the market that you had set up your little, um, stand at the edge of the flower farm. Tell us a little about it.
Sure, sure. Initially I had in mind kind of a chip and Gaines stand that somebody was going to build for me, but I wasn't initially sure that the location I had selected was going to be the finite location. And my husband had the idea to use the tractor. The tractor was a big investment for our farm and the, his beautiful John Deere tractor. And he said, let's just put that out and put the tractor, the flowers in the bucket. And boy people loved it. They were thrilled something about that tractor or something about the kids and, and all women, men, everyone was really intrigued by it.
Did that end up becoming a photo spot? I could see that happening.
Yes. Yes, absolutely. Lots of, lots of kids and photo shoots on the tractor.
So you've made this emotional connection again in several ways in telling the story and then giving them an experience and be in a destination. So I think that goes a long way in establishing something new, looking back, if there were one thing, if you had to drill down your best advice to one thing and you thought, oh, I wish I had known this to start with. What would that be? What would you share with our audience?
That's a tough one. It was a little bit different for me because we did kind of pivot because of COVID. I will say having started the farm stand, having people buy directly here, I started it really self-served. So initially people, the contact was really supposed to be minimal. Um, so I think that what I can tell someone is really, you can't always plan in your head. What is the best thing? You almost need to let others in your audience share what their needs are. Um, so even as far as the stand hours goes, I feel like the flexibility that we offer is that we have a seasonal product and we tell people it's available. The nature tells us it's available and people seem to be fine with that. I think they're kind of intrigued and they kind of get excited and are willing to wait. So I don't know if I have one piece of advice as far as farming goes, because I could stay on this podcast for another two hours.
I think your number one advice you just gave, and that was to go with the flow and let project evolve on its own. And I think that's valuable advice. I think that what you're saying also is you want to concentrate on service, not sales.
Sure, sure. And I think that is really key because even though we did have a self-serve stand, we kind of, I feel like we kind of have like an Oasis here where people, it was like almost like a respite. People were working from home. They wanted to get out, get fresh air. And my, our first season COVID we had, that was when we had in the fall, we had planted our tulips and maybe we had 6,000 tulips in the ground. And of course you can imagine when I saw this pictures in the industry where people were throwing flowers away, everywhere in the world, and I was going to have 6,000 tulips come up, you know, how was I going to sell them? So people were really was a place for them to come and, and the messages, and that's what I would really say was the building.
This is starting to build that the audience was when people would pick up flowers and even if we weren't around or, you know, there were times we would check and go out and we were working from home, but I really felt like people would take the time to communicate with us and how that tell us how it changed their day, or send us a picture of who they gave it to. There was a lot of gifting going on during COVID. So, um, I really felt happy to be part of that. And it was therapy for us as well.
You mentioned it being self-serve at the farm. Stan, did they just leave money? Was there a price list? How do you orchestrate that for those that might be considering doing the same thing?
Because we had done the branding work ahead of time. We had a website set up and it is a commerce site. So you can actually come to the sand and you could pay on our website. You can pay from your phone, or you could take the flowers, leave, go home and pay. We also set up a demo account, which is very popular. We set up a PayPal account and we also accept cash and check. And we're very lucky. We have not had any fact, I do have a cash box, um, but it's open, it's exposed. Um, and I do try to keep the price point so that it's easy and that they don't have to worry about change, that we try to keep it in like five. So whether it be 25, 35, easy 20. So it's pretty easy for people.
In my years with flowers, I have just found that flower, people who love flowers are good people, you know, they love life also. And it's a very trustworthy group of people.
Are you wondering, who's partnering with me and bringing practical solutions to you. This podcast is brought to you by Smithers Oasis, north America. Why Smithers Oasis investing in your business, helping you to meet challenge with change Smithers Oasis north America understands that you need fresh ideas to inspire new growth Oasis carefully plants the seeds of your success by offering a balance of traditional and on-trend products that enhance your designs, simply visit your wholesale supplier for your favorite Oasis products or view the online selection of direct delivered to you products and seasonal inspiration. Now available from Oasis floral products.com while you're on the website, check out our blog, scroll down to the featured posts section and enjoy the collection of design tips and flower ideas for weddings holidays in store or online business. And lots more after you enjoy each blog or podcast episode, please share them with your flour France. So I find it so interesting that you've added on as you go along in your growing seasons. I know you can't name all of the flowers that you have, but tell us a few examples of the things you're enjoying growing.
Sure, sure. We grow snapdragons Diane. This feverfew the corium peonies. Um, and then we have a warm season, flowers, seniors, Amaranthus sunflowers dahlias, and just a huge list of any more that we, we try every year. We eliminate some every year. Um, I'm sure I'll add a few more every year.
Now you mentioned to me one time, the amount of space that you had, they, it's not that it's this huge farm. It's just that you're being very judicious with how you use the land. Do you offer that advice to others?
I would say that nowadays flower farming, there is a movement towards growing and back. Your, you could grow in your backyard, um, to call yourself a farm. Doesn't mean you have to have 10 acres, 30 acres, you can grow on an acre quarter acre. I mean, w we're probably a little bit over a quarter acre now where we live, the farm that I grow on actually has 30 acres of property. And we lease to a farmer who, who grows on different props. Um, it's not about how large of an area you grow. It's really about getting the soil, um, where you need it to be, to go flowers. And I think a lot of people underestimate, um, the work and effort that goes into getting the soil where it needs to be. So we're about growing that volume, but really the quality and keeping the soil where it used to be.
Do you do all of the cutting of the flowers or do you allow the customers to cut any of the flowers?
We do not currently do a UK check and it is something I have considered. And as you know, the business model changes, I do have lots of people inquiring about that. I have had, um, events where people have come out and cut or had had individual sessions. And it really does change. The experience really does change people's ideas of flower farming. Um, and there's times where people will come to the sand and we'll bring them out to the garden and cut a few more flowers. And they think that's the most amazing thing in the hall, which it is, it really is. It's really cool. And I think people are surprised. I think even driving by and seeing what we grow, there's something different about walking in the rows and seeing the, the wildlife, seeing the butterfly, seeing, you know, all the different, my science, my husband's a science teacher and he's, he can name these insects and animals. I don't know all the names, but I, I, I think it's intriguing.
I think that was excellent. I know that you use a lot of Smithers Oasis products also, um, in your process, do you have a couple of those dimension?
Yeah, definitely. I think one thing to, to talk about is because we are locally grown and we're cutting something that's completely fresh. It already has. It's going to have a great baseline, but I want to ensure that my customers really can extend that. So we use all the, for life products. We just picked up, we use hydration solutions for life 300,
Just a lot of the different things. That's interesting. Now, one day when you and I were having a conversation, this is jumping back to the social media aspect, but you mentioned geo fencing. And I thought that would be something that was interesting to our audience if they were not, uh, uh, custom to that.
Sure, sure. Um, one of the things we did when we first started out with collaborating with the different boutiques and different markets, and because I had already developed a following on my social media, if I had a event where I was going to be showcasing flowers at a boutique and a different town, um, it wouldn't really make sense to just post and assume my followers are going to drive out to this boutique cheek to buy flowers. So what I would do is I would target a Facebook post or an Instagram post, and I would create a radius around the location that I was selling the flowers. So by creating this radius, anyone who drives into that area would be fed this ad. So at this point I'm really just targeting based off location. Um, a lot of my followers do tend to be, you know, more around my region though. I do have people who drive from all different communities to come to the farm. I really just, especially when there's a day that we're promoting a certain product, I really want people to be aware when you're driving, is that radius that that product is available and where
I think that's very interesting as well. Now you do so many things that it's amazing to think how you can get it all accomplished. So I'm sure that a lot of people want to ask this question that we always ask. And it's interesting to find the answers. What is your super power?
I think superpower would be just not being afraid to try something. And I really do believe that is really the most important superpower to have, because there are times when I've had to learn how to do irrigation, or I've had to learn how to, you know, read a soil test or there's so many things that I'm not familiar with that I have to ask for help and kind of put myself out there and kind of sometimes feel pretty vulnerable. And sometimes maybe I don't really sound, I don't want to say sound smart, but I just, I'm not familiar. It's like everything's new to me, but I think people in this industry, whether it be farming, whether it be flowers, the floral culture industry, everybody has been really open and sharing. Um, so it's a pretty awesome community to be into. Um, we do, we are members of a different, a couple different floral associations, especially our association. Um, and there are times when I have had posted maybe a behind the scenes of me trying to do some irrigation and another farmer had messaged me and reached out and said, Hey, you know, if you need help, I had a similar situation. Have you tried this? I mean, isn't that fantastic? So my superpower is, is not, is not, uh, feeling, being vulnerable is okay. And being open to try new things.
I think creative communities are more likely to share. I think there, there's a part of the creative personality that wants to share with other people information they've learned because creatives have a tendency to really enjoy learning, but there's another enjoyment and passing that along.
One of the many things Leah experienced on her flower farming journey is how generously people in the floral industry invest in others. This community of creatives actively offer support by sharing ideas, tips, and techniques today. Sharon shout out goes to two associations. Leah mentioned as valuable resources for her on the job training when she had so much to learn the association of cut flower growers, whose mantra is growing, sharing, learning, their website can be found@ascgl.org. Leah also mentioned the slow flowers society found it, slow flowers, society.com with a focus on connecting, celebrating, empowering check out these sites for more information, you can find their links in the show notes. If you were going to give best advice at this point, I'd asked you earlier in the farming section of it, but now that you kind of figured out the farming and you have your sand, what would you suggest to someone else who this might be their only livelihood, where you have a full-time job also, what would you suggest to them in terms of growing the business would suggest they go after wholesale markets, farmer's markets, what kind of things would you suggest?
That's a good question. And I'm going to share an example with you. Um, I, I didn't mention this earlier, but when I started my farm, I have a sister who lives in Missouri, who also started a flower farm. And she was a school teacher who had summers off and, and she was intrigued by this movement and she also grew. Um, but what she found was that her market was completely different than mine, just based on geographics. Um, so what I found that what worked for me absolutely did not work for her. So in her, her example was that she would say, I'm too far. People don't want to drive this far to come out to my stand. I try to you pick, I've tried this, I've tried that, and it can be discouraging, but she did learn that, um, she, she would take her flowers to the school and she would do some school projects with her kids.
And one of those was like a fundraiser and she had purchased an old vintage truck and she would take pictures of the kids. Um, and she would, she would donate the money to the school. Well, lo and behold, people had saw these photos and they wanted her to start shooting photography. And, um, so between her flower farm really became more of a backdrop for her, for photography business. And the actual selling of flowers was not as big of a, uh, emphasis as the photography's. Um, I guess my advice to somebody is, is you really got to know your market. You really need to know, you know, what's out there and what your time is. Um, obviously if you're going to sell to a wholesaler or sell to a florist, they're going to want to availability list. You're going to need to go out and you're going to need to give an idea of how many flowers you're going to be able to sell.
And you can't tell them you have 10, you kind of need to have a few of them, make a list and put it together. And for them to really feel open to use you. Because I think the thing is with local forest is they're kind of learning about local farmers and it's, we're kind of educating each other as we go. Um, I recently just had a forest reach out to me. I have him reach out to me all the time. Um, but they messaged me on social media and they say, Hey, do you have any purple dahlias? Or do you have any this, or do you have any of that? And I have other flop flower farmer florist to do the same thing, but at the same time, I think if you're working with a traditional florist who is used to ordering from a wholesaler, you better have a good list together, and you'd better be able to email it to them and communicate with them and have a good price as together.
I think that this advice brings us full circle to what you said in the beginning, go with the flow and let your business evolve to what adapts to your schedule, your customer's needs and how it all blends together. And I think that's excellent advice. You mentioned at one point that sometimes people will reach out to you for wedding flowers and you have to be sure that they understand you cannot promise certain numbers or amounts. And how do they typically react to that?
I think people are pretty excited about what we're growing. Um, I think they're intrigued. What I found is a lot of people have not, are not really familiar with some of the flowers that we grow. And I was quite surprised by that. Um, so I think they're, they don't know the names of the flowers, but they like the look or the feel and they liked the garden S kind of feel the big dinner plate dahlias and the lippy empathy. Don't think it's a rose. They're not quite sure what it is. Um, and I have kind of curated a list of products that I grow really, that I like, and I know that they would like, so I've kind of done the work ahead of time to make it appealing. Um, and then they basically are okay with that because they, they kind of see that I kind of curated a look together. Um, so if I'm selling, um, a force for a do it yourself, right, human on Sapporo pocket, I tell them they'll get a mix. And sometimes they don't understand, they might just want all flowers. And I have to kind of educate them as you know, you're going to want some focal flowers. You're going to want some filler. You're going to want, you know, different types of products. So I tell them there'll be a mix. And, um, and I've never had anyone complain about that. So,
So they're very happy with that. Actually. They're probably very happy that someone is picking it out for them since they don't really know exactly what they're asking for. Yeah.
Yeah. It's, it takes a lot of time to educate, you know, I give a lot of credit to event. Designers are full of designers who specialize in events. It's really, I've found them. Probably the biggest part is all the communication that you have going into it. The creativity, that's just one aspect, but I think that's it. And then when you think of flower farming and you think of forestry, there's all this kind of smoke and, you know, alert, but there really is. You really have to have a good, strong business sounds. And, um, I think that's real important. You don't want to get caught up. You can't get caught up in the beauty of flowers who wouldn't get caught up, but yet to be successful, you need to have a blueprint in a, in a business plan that will work.
Now that you've built your flower collection. Do you have a favorite flower?
You know what I do have, um, my fire favorite player changes seasonally, and sometimes it's not the big showy one. It isn't always the big dinner plate Dahlia. Um, sometimes it's like the little sparkle, one, um, like a DAC. So like a, like a false queen Anne's lace that just kind of speaks me for some reason. And I think I like a flower that has an earthy feel to it that kind of has a wave to it. And it has kind of a natural, um, natural feeling to it.
I find it so interesting that when we work with flowers, there's an experience that you feel that when you, it's just you working with the flowers, that it's hard to describe to other people. But I do think that there is that positive energy there with the flowers, because if you think about it, flowers are medications lowers are the ingredients to make up there. Um, aroma therapy. There, there's so many ways that flowers and herbs are used and healing ways in our life. And I just think we're very blessed when we get to handle those flowers every day and call it work.
Yes, I would agree with that.
So it's very good. Well, Leah, we thank you so much. Is there anything else that you would like to add?
Um, I guess the only thing I would like to add is that really what I have learned about this industry about this business is that really I've gotten so much back from my clients and customers, because what I realized is what I'm selling is an experience that they, they get to share with others. And those experiences are really about life. And I think we tend to focus flowers on just a balance, but I think the daily aspects of having flowers in our lives are so important. And I see every day, people sharing and caring for other people through flowers. Um, and it's touching, it's very touching.
I always suggest to people that we always celebrate life with flowers or our voices, sometimes our speak when there are no words, flowers are uplifting, they're comforting things, create excitement when you get them as a gift unexpectedly. So it's about the only time you can give a lie to someone because it's kind of hard to give people a puppy they're not expecting
Great, I guess, I guess I was surprised by this. I mean, obviously I work in an industry where I'm always, you know, being creative and giving people creative products and people are really, always excited about it, but, um, flowers have really kind of threw me a curve ball. I, I just wasn't expecting all this feedback and just how people share every daily life moments with me or how flowers have, you know, changed their lives. And so it's pretty, it's pretty exciting to, to be, um, funny story that we had recently was when we tried to record this podcast and I had come home knowing that we were going to schedule this and I was prepared to laptop up, had everything ready. And I went out to check on the flower sand and a really Trental rain and storm was coming. Things were blowing all over the places the flowers were falling over and, and it was, it was pretty, pretty crazy moment. And I just had to kind of get things cleaned up and get my composure and get back in here. And of course on the internet was out. So, you know, like this are your curve balls that I'm glad we were able to reschedule it, but nature nature, for sure. It's, uh, it's Saquon.
And that was a perfect example of the challenges of flower farming. Well, Leah, we thank you so much for being with us and sharing your story. I know that it's going to be inspiring to other people who are thinking that might be something I would like to try. So thanks for sharing your advice. And we're also going to share some of her photos and information in a blog. If you're listening to this podcast, be sure to go to a wasteless, floral products.com and check out the blog as well.
Thanks, Sharon and Smithers Oasis north America for taking time to share my story.
Thank you. I'm sure how the bloom podcast is sure to be a success.
Thank you so much In closing Smithers, Oasis north America. And I want to thank you for joining us today. If you've enjoyed this episode, please share it with a friend and be sure to hit subscribe. You don't want to miss the inspired solutions. Our upcoming guests will share for your personal or business growth until next time I'm Sharon. [inaudible] reminding you that like the unfurling pedals of a flower, we grow by changing form soaking inspiration and like raindrops absorbing energy from others, like warmth from the sun. This growth opens us up to new ideas and that's how we blend