Strap in as we cruise through the twists and turns of brand storytelling with Sarah's expertise steering the way. We're not just talking dried petals here; we're witnessing memories transformed into timeless art. As we explore the intricacies of floral preservation, our conversation blooms into the significance of crafting an authentic brand image, even when juggling the allure of influencer marketing. Sarah's journey is a vibrant tapestry woven from threads of leadership lessons from her family, bridal shop beginnings, and the evolution into a blossoming business leader.
We get real about the hurdles of maintaining the soul of a brand when the market is a jungle of copycats. The answer lies within becoming the best at what you do. Listen as Sarah talks about how she's turning Pressed Floral into the best in the business.
Please connect with Trevor on social media. You can find him anywhere @thetrevorcrump
Strap in as we cruise through the twists and turns of brand storytelling with Sarah's expertise steering the way. We're not just talking dried petals here; we're witnessing memories transformed into timeless art. As we explore the intricacies of floral preservation, our conversation blooms into the significance of crafting an authentic brand image, even when juggling the allure of influencer marketing. Sarah's journey is a vibrant tapestry woven from threads of leadership lessons from her family, bridal shop beginnings, and the evolution into a blossoming business leader.
We get real about the hurdles of maintaining the soul of a brand when the market is a jungle of copycats. The answer lies within becoming the best at what you do. Listen as Sarah talks about how she's turning Pressed Floral into the best in the business.
Please connect with Trevor on social media. You can find him anywhere @thetrevorcrump
Yo, what's going on everybody? Welcome to the unstoppable marketer podcast. With me, as always, is Mark Goldhart. Mark Goldhart, how are you Doing good?
Speaker 2:Not really, though I drove so many miles.
Speaker 1:Yeah, tell everybody why you drove so many miles.
Speaker 2:I went to Amarillo, Texas to pick up a trailer and if we have any listeners in Amarillo Texas, I am sorry you live there, I'm just kidding.
Speaker 1:Well, there's something cool about Amarillo, Texas.
Speaker 2:Well, first of all, I made that drive and I warned you, george Strait has a great song about Amarillo, texas. What does he?
Speaker 1:I warned you about the drive, but it's just terrible.
Speaker 2:It is a terrible drive, it's a miserable, miserable drive. And the GPS just kept pushing me into Colorado. It just wanted me to go through the treacherous mountains during the winter you went, like Park City, colorado, kansas, oklahoma. No, the way down. I was just going to go through Moab but, then the GPS is like no, keep going, don't turn into Moab, just keep going into Colorado. And so I was just driving through some wintery mountains for seriously five hours. Then finally made it to Pueblo and then went down to Amarillo.
Speaker 1:Then I went to.
Speaker 2:Albuquerque and then up.
Speaker 1:I believe in Amarillo they have the biggest steak eating contest restaurant, so it's like it's like a 47 ounce steak or something like that, and if you can eat it all in one sitting you get a big prize. We went to it. We didn't try it.
Speaker 2:I would have gone there if I knew that. Yeah, I should have told you. So Amarillo is great for that. They have a steakhouse and a steak eating, so if you finish it you don't have to buy it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and I think there's probably there's got to be more to it so like a time.
Speaker 2:the incentive is probably a time trial.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and the incentive's got to be a little more than that, because like 47 ounces of meat- Do you know how? Expensive, that would be Well. Yeah, of course I know how expensive.
Speaker 2:That's fine enough incentive for me.
Speaker 1:But that would be miserable, oh wouldn't?
Speaker 2:Yeah, it would be miserable for me, but you don't love steak like I love steak.
Speaker 1:I mean, I like steak.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you don't really love it like I love it.
Speaker 1:Maybe not, I don't know. Why would you say that?
Speaker 2:You know, because, like when I have a free night, I will literally pull out like an 18 ounce steak and cook it and eat it by myself.
Speaker 1:We do butcher we do butcher box and we eat steaks every single week.
Speaker 2:But like 18 ounce steaks.
Speaker 1:I don't know what the size is.
Speaker 2:It's probably like a 10, 8 to 12 guy.
Speaker 1:It's like a 10 ounce ribeye. Yeah, I don't know what that's supposed to mean, but we'll do.
Speaker 2:Let's. Let's like your sides. You like your salad? Yeah, I do Like. I just eat the steak. I don't bother with anything else.
Speaker 1:All right, you like to consume? You like to be more full than I do? Yes, I definitely do not like that feeling. I like that feeling. Yeah Well, I'm excited for our podcast today.
Speaker 2:Me too. We have a very definite state.
Speaker 1:She's just been so patiently listening to us. Just rally on Texas and you rally on my hey, but Texas is great.
Speaker 2:I love Texas.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 2:But I was not stoked to be an Amarillo and, to be fair, maybe it's because I drove 14 hours to get there. But yeah, whatever, we'll introduce our guest.
Speaker 1:Well, we've got Sarah Ebert. Sarah is the founder and CEO of a brand here locally here in Utah, called pressed floral. Yeah, press floral. Tell us about pressed floral.
Speaker 4:Totally yeah. Great conversation, guys. I love steak. We could do a steak, do you love? Steak, for sure. Yeah, my perfect, yeah, we love to cook steak.
Speaker 1:I don't cook it.
Speaker 4:My husband does, but yeah, press floral is a flower preservation company here in Utah. We press and preserve sentimental arrangements and turn them into fine pieces of art.
Speaker 3:It's so cool. Thank you, so so cool.
Speaker 2:Well welcome, thank you.
Speaker 1:We're excited to be here.
Speaker 2:I'm glad she did the one liner I know, that's why I turned it to her.
Speaker 1:It's because I should just write it down and read it, you should. I always butcher it.
Speaker 4:It's funny because whatever companies say they're one liners or somebody who owns a company. I feel like it's so clean and easy and you just know that they say it actually all the time. That's that's probably why it's clean for me.
Speaker 1:Yours is good, though Very to the point.
Speaker 3:You're welcome.
Speaker 1:Thanks, welcome, we're excited to have you here. Um, before we jump in, I just want to bring up a topic really quickly. Do we think? Well, there's two, there's two questions. Are you Taylor Swift?
Speaker 4:Yes, you are a Swifty. Would you say you're a Swifty or just a Taylor Swift? No, I'm not a Swifty. I think I'm a Taylor Swift fan. After I saw the Taylor Swift movie, I didn't go to the concert. I did walk out and I was like I'd watch that movie again. I want to go to the concert, but I don't know if I could say I'm a Swifty.
Speaker 2:Wait, what's the? What's the defining line there? Like when do you become a Swifty versus a fan?
Speaker 1:When you start protecting her online through social media comments. Okay, I think that could be it too.
Speaker 4:I think the Swifties also know everything that connects through all of their songs. They could tell you everything about her exes everything, yes, Easter eggs.
Speaker 3:They call me Easter eggs I don't know those at all.
Speaker 4:I don't either, but I do love her. I think she's like a goddess kind of.
Speaker 1:I actually legitimately like her too. We talk first. Well, because she's been so in the media, we tend to talk about her a decent amount, like just jokingly and we get so many people who get so much.
Speaker 2:She's social bait, so you got to bring her up.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah, and so many people get after me about it. I'm like, what you don't know is like I actually enjoy her. Everyone's getting mad at me, but anyways.
Speaker 2:so my question is yeah, he enjoys her, I don't.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I enjoy her. Just kidding, I don't enjoy her. My daughter loves her.
Speaker 4:She's got to have the best concert that'll ever exist in the entire world.
Speaker 1:My wife took my two girls to her concert, virtually like in the movie theaters.
Speaker 4:Yes, yes, that's what I went to. Yeah, but it was actually really good. Yeah, that's what I went to the movie was just her concert.
Speaker 1:It was just the concert. People went to a movie and it was just her concert. Yes, and they spent money.
Speaker 4:And you're seeing in it and you're like screaming. It's kind of weird that it occurs like that. It's anyways, but it was great.
Speaker 2:Yeah. What is it about Taylor Swift that creates such an emotional connection to her audience?
Speaker 4:I think that she. First of all, it's crazy how she performs her concerts. I hear that she practiced by, like running on the treadmill and singing her songs. I don't know if you guys have ever heard that.
Speaker 1:Just to get like her lung capacity, her endurance, yeah.
Speaker 4:So she would sing her songs while she was running on the treadmill and you can just tell when she's doing her concerts. She's just like untouchable. It's unstoppable market Marketer. That's funny. I was like why does that sound like the podcast I'm on? But she's like unstoppable in how she performs. Nobody can compare to her. So I think that people love her because she just seems like Even more than Beyonce. Oh yeah.
Speaker 1:She's bigger than Beyonce. Yeah, for sure, I like her more than Beyonce.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, I mean, she's bigger than Beyonce now, right? Yeah, pretty cut and dry much bigger now.
Speaker 1:Totally yeah.
Speaker 2:Well, my question is it just her performance, or is it her lyrics, her songs? What is it exactly that?
Speaker 4:I mean as a not Swifty I'd probably say her songs and like the performance and the lyrics to go with it, how she transitioned into different types of music, but she still is, like, really relatable and everybody loves all of her albums.
Speaker 1:I think that's the keyword, right. The relatable yeah, that's what you're kind of looking for. Well, because we talked about that, right, her theme never changed, but the genre did.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 4:That's a good point she was like country into pop and yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that was an interesting podcast episode. Well, listen, you've asked questions. These were not my questions about Taylor Swift. This is not why I brought her up. She's performing in Japan. Yeah, you heard about this.
Speaker 4:Yeah, my sister-in-law is going to that concert, is she? Yeah, she's going to Japan for it. Crazy, wild.
Speaker 1:Yeah, she's half Japanese, but Okay yeah, so she's performing in Japan.
Speaker 4:The day after is the Super Bowl.
Speaker 1:I think it's the day after. Wait tell me, is Japan ahead or behind us? You were just there. Yeah, I was just there. It's a day fully ahead, a day fully ahead, so it's Thursday. It's Wednesday there right now, correct, okay, so I think, if I'm right, isn't she performing the night before or the the like? It's the 10th and the Super Bowl is the 11th and she ends. The time she ends is exactly 13 hours before the Super Bowl starts and the flight from where she's at to Vegas is a 13 hour flight.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah, and she's going to be on all this debate. If she's going to make it, I don't really. I don't know if I have a question there. My question is more so do you think this is gonna be the most, the Number one, most viewed super bowl because of her?
Speaker 4:You think mine?
Speaker 2:No, you don't think so. She's not performing, so no, I.
Speaker 4:Think it will be.
Speaker 1:I know she's not performing. That would be crazy.
Speaker 4:I think it's because of all the Swifties who all of a sudden watch football because they didn't before.
Speaker 2:But does that mean addition? Because that's the problem, right, when you say more people, they measure that through TV, so, and those people are probably in the house with the TV on anyways, but maybe they're watching more this time. So no, I don't.
Speaker 1:I don't, you don't think more TV will be tuned in.
Speaker 4:I don't yeah, that's a good point. I'm curious how much the difference in like a commercial cost, is this Super Bowl compared to others. That'd be very interesting if Because of that same thing maybe it's the same TVs, but you would bet that there's more viewers of All genders too.
Speaker 1:I'd like to know what.
Speaker 2:Yes, that's true, like you could probably put a premium on it because maybe there's yeah, like maybe there's more viewers and how.
Speaker 1:Here's the other household. How many people do you think in the Super Bowl commercials will potentially tie Something Taylor Swiftie to it, or do you think she'll be any in any Super Bowl commercials? I?
Speaker 4:Thought Travis Kelsey would be, because he has been in a ton of commercials already, so I'm sure that I thought about that same thing actually.
Speaker 2:I wonder, I don't know, maybe We'll see.
Speaker 1:Those are my questions. That's it, do you?
Speaker 2:think they're a real couple oh.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I, yeah, that's been a good hot topic of ours.
Speaker 4:Did you see there?
Speaker 1:You don't think they're PR stunt.
Speaker 4:No, I don't think the Taylor Swift would do that you don't unless Travis Kelsey is like fooling her, but I don't think she would do that. Did you see there, like after the game, the last game there Running down to the field? I don't know if she ran down to the field, but I don't think it's a bearer.
Speaker 1:They looked very Lovey-dovey.
Speaker 4:I think they're getting married and. I hope we preserve their wedding bouquet when they do.
Speaker 1:Let's go. Nice plug.
Speaker 4:Well, if she's listening. I don't think they're faking.
Speaker 2:I don't think they're faking it simply because faking a relationship would be way too much effort. Well, I think I said that maybe doing all of that just to fake it, like I know. Yeah like really. No, I agree, it's not even worth whatever money could be put out by a PR firm.
Speaker 1:Well, I think the theory I had a theory that maybe it started out potentially like a PR.
Speaker 2:Well, because that's that happens all the time, all the time. Yeah, we'll line people up, yeah totally and um and and and.
Speaker 1:The reason why I thought maybe that that was fair is because immediately after, Kelsey got deals with big pharma commercials, so he was like promoting covid vaccines and I thought Interesting there's a big potential motive there to get his like, yeah, bolstered up. His image and likeness, yeah. Yeah interesting because I think men were less likely to get.
Speaker 2:Covid shots.
Speaker 1:Vaccination for women and women.
Speaker 2:Really. That's true for all vaccinations? Yep, if I'm not mistaken. Like flu shots like women get flu shots way at a higher rate than men.
Speaker 4:Yeah, and why is that? Because I I know a lot of friends who don't get it because of the fertility talk that maybe it like. It's that I'm shocked that it's actually that opposite.
Speaker 2:Well, we can get fact checked on that. Yeah, we could, I do know for the flu shot, though, like it used to be that men wouldn't, and it was more.
Speaker 1:I don't think it was really a stance.
Speaker 2:It's just that men are like just less likely to show up to the doctor and they don't care about their bodies and health. It's just like oh, women do. Oh yeah, I forgot.
Speaker 1:So I thought, maybe I thought that maybe it was something like that, but then maybe it was like uh, was it she's? Uh, she's, she's all that you guys ever seen. She's all that with fernie, prince jr no no, you look maybe too youthful to that, that's probably before your time, I could have been but she's, she's all.
Speaker 1:That is Paul Walker, freddy, prince jr. They're the popular guys in high school. They find a nerdy girl in high school that that he can't get Her to a dance and make him fall, make her fall in love with him and then they fall and then they fall in love Very romantic and then she's the hottest girl in the whole school.
Speaker 1:She took off her glasses and everyone thought she was beautiful took off the glasses, shook the hair, yeah well, let's all right enough about Taylor Swift Tells teenage dramas. Okay, so your story how did you like what? What like propels you to start pressed floral.
Speaker 4:Yeah, um, it's a good question. I always wanted to be an entrepreneur and so I was always kind of looking for that next idea, which a lot of entrepreneurs are like. You guys probably were similar, so I just thought of the idea one day. It was as cheesy as it sounds, like one of those light bulb moments late at night, and I had never seen the concept of preserving someone's wedding bouquet specifically between two panes of glass like a flattened version of a beautiful piece of art, and I had never seen it before. I looked it up online Google social media didn't exist. So I woke up. I had four jobs at that time because I was like on my own. I wanted to travel, all those things.
Speaker 2:Wait, wait, wait, rewind. Are you saying that you dreamed of this?
Speaker 4:No, I was, it was late at night 2 am, so I was like and you were like I wasn't actually dreaming.
Speaker 1:Okay, you were stirring.
Speaker 4:Yes, I envisioned this got up, was on my phone and I the year was what 2019 got it.
Speaker 3:Okay, yeah, sorry, april 2019.
Speaker 4:And I woke up. I quit one of my jobs. It was like a call center that I hated and I went and picked up some we could talk call center all day. Did you guys.
Speaker 1:You see, what call center? It was what you say up.
Speaker 3:Well help.
Speaker 1:Were you guys there? Oh yeah, shut up Absolutely during the fbi raid, Were you?
Speaker 4:there? No, I wasn't during the fbi raid, because wasn't it called something else before?
Speaker 2:up. Wait a second. So I was all of that. I was an orem. Was Matt Egan your manager?
Speaker 4:Gosh, he was shorter, really nice. I don't know if it was Matt wait?
Speaker 1:What year I worked for two and a half weeks Give us the okay.
Speaker 2:Okay.
Speaker 4:Very short amount of time.
Speaker 2:So you were just in and out.
Speaker 1:I was in and out. I were you on the sales side or the customer service side Was.
Speaker 3:I was.
Speaker 1:I.
Speaker 3:I feel like I remember my pitch. I was a driver.
Speaker 4:This is sarah from up. Well, help we probably built that pitch.
Speaker 1:We did build that pitch.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and 2000, by 2019 that was, would you guys?
Speaker 4:have. Would have been in that room like no, we were some point I would have, yeah, yeah 2019, though no, okay, we both left in 2017, 2018. Okay, so you guys were there when the fbi raid happens.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah. Oh my gosh, it's still. I didn't realize that the call center down there survived that long, but anyways.
Speaker 4:I think it went out of business like that year.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so you were there for two weeks.
Speaker 4:Yeah, two and a half weeks, which is great. I had happy.
Speaker 1:Yeah, we all have a better connection now.
Speaker 3:Yeah, that's hilarious.
Speaker 1:There's been so many people we've had on the podcast that we find this big podcast.
Speaker 4:That is so like we're just talking and they're like, oh, yeah, up, we'll help, or like I seriously feel so dumb though that I didn't know that that was the same company, like I was so naive walking in and there was like all this fbi stuff and weird things going on. It's crazy.
Speaker 2:Well, they never got convicted. So yeah do with that? Well, you will. But anyways, sorry, proceed. You quit your job at the call center.
Speaker 4:I quit that job and I went to a place that like sell, sold already, like mini, like tiny pressed flowers that you can like get on amazon or etsy, grab some, put them in a frame and I was like this is beautiful, it's perfect. I got to start, so I spent the rest of that somewhere like grabbing flowers, learning how to press them. Um, and then I launched that August and it just honestly picked up like wildfire Because nobody had seen anything like it before.
Speaker 1:So what made it pick up like wildfire, like because obviously you got to get Eyeballs on it. Was it you posting? Was it other people posting for you?
Speaker 4:No, yeah so for the first two years it was just me, before I started hiring team members, and, um, I started out with a giveaway and so that really really helped. I'm sure a lot of it was my supporters and just friends, but I remember gaining 800 followers in the first week and just being like ecstatic because I just felt like that was huge. Um, but I did a lot of giveaways at the beginning. Um, I would share, I'd have other people share, I. It just was something that, once again, people hadn't seen before. So I had clients instantly just being like my wedding's tomorrow. Can you do it like all these things without even having all this foundation of my work?
Speaker 2:They just were wanting it right then and there, wow, so 2019 is right, when the algorithms on instagram started shifting more to a pay-to-play model.
Speaker 1:Well, I didn't say it was before. I mean like, well, it's 2018 is when you really saw the. That's super impressive that she did that in 2019 2019 very most people, most people who got their initial success From instagram. It was pre 2018.
Speaker 2:And during the instagram, boom is what we call it. Yeah, yeah, no, I always.
Speaker 4:When I hear stories about like instagram at the beginning and starting businesses. Then I get kind of jealous because they grew really fast.
Speaker 2:We got you shouldn't, because there's really bad habits that were built. Back then on by companies.
Speaker 1:Yes, yeah brands who who started after, like you, yeah, I bet. Yeah, that's a really good point. Like you, don't have the habits that a lot of us Got, yeah, which made it very challenging, which makes it still to the stay very challenging for Brands to create good content. Yeah, interesting?
Speaker 4:Yeah, because it's changed a ton. I mean, we've been able to grow on instagram recently and before, like we grew a ton on tick tock and Things just kind of changed and shifted in both ways. I mean, I feel like giveaways were a big thing when I first started. Now they don't really help in a big way unless we want to get, like emails captured, but now it's just, it's real video content is what really makes things grow. Now I feel like totally, but back then it's different.
Speaker 1:One question I'm curious about to rewind a little bit. You said you were always entrepreneurial minded. Yeah, does that come from family or okay?
Speaker 4:Yeah, so my dad was an entrepreneur. He still is. All of my siblings my sister owns an active wear brand and is launching another brand in the next couple weeks that I think is gonna kind of take over the world, but that might be my sister energy. I just think it's an incredible product. My all of my siblings just very entrepreneurial, so we grew up in an entrepreneurial family, but I don't really know if I ever knew that just in like.
Speaker 4:The ways we were raised to like always your best, like try again. I don't know things like that, but was your dad do? He started a company called well. He was co-founder and a company called the Arbinger Institute, who so? He wrote books like leadership and self-deception, the anatomy of peace, um, for the Arbinger Institute, and then he now is retired from that and he started another company called with the. So it's like leadership consulting for people and businesses amazing screen.
Speaker 2:So do you think his leadership Skills rubbed off on you? I hope so.
Speaker 4:I yeah, being a leader is like the biggest task now, for sure, so I think so we've actually had him, like my leadership team has read his books and nice one of his books. And they've come in and like a consulting like 360 with my management team before, which has been awesome, so I think so how big's your? Team. We have 42 now. We have 42 now wow, that's a big team.
Speaker 1:That's a very big team. All right how many of those Employees are artists like so yep in.
Speaker 4:We obviously have a very labor intensive product. So In our like operations, production department is the majority of them, and on our like marketing team, socials, pr, management, hoganist I think we probably have like 12. Got it, yeah, very cool, that's amazing.
Speaker 1:My grandma is going to be very my grandma. We talk about her a lot. She is like an avid listener.
Speaker 4:Oh cool. Yes, hi, grandma loves Pressing flowers. That's so cool.
Speaker 1:Yeah, every Bookmark she makes them into bookmarks. Like every time I see her I feel like somebody in my family gets a Pitcher. She'll like go develop pictures. Yeah and like a pressed flower cute. Oh honey, yeah, she's really into it. Yeah, she's gonna love this. She will.
Speaker 4:It's cute when we have like grandma's come into our shop because they'll always like I press flowers all the time or things like that because it is like a. It's a very Traditional thing to do. Yeah, I didn't create pressing flowers.
Speaker 2:Totally so. How did you come up with this idea? Like it just did you see a pressed flower and then it just popped up in your head again. I mean, what was going on in your life at that time?
Speaker 4:Yeah, I think that's what it was. So I worked at a bridal shop store as a sales consultant. My sister was getting married, so one of my first bouquets that I was proud of was my sisters that I pressed. And I did an internship with company called Utah Brides. So I think weddings was in my mind and also, like I want to start a business, I want to quit my sales call center job and all my other jobs mind. So yeah, that's where it came from. I think it was just like my stage of life.
Speaker 1:That's so cool. What, at what point in time, were you able to Like? Because you say right when you get started. It's like you're getting people who are reaching out to you like crazy because, hey, my weddings tomorrow like yeah. What, how was?
Speaker 4:how was managing that in those like early stages, like yeah, it was first of all just really exciting because I was like goodness, I was charging like a hundred or two hundred dollars at that time and I just was like planning out my whole month and all these things. So it's just exciting to begin with. So I was able to like manage it. Well, it was just all through text or DMs. I didn't have a website. Sure, people would Venmo me. Um, I would go to people's weddings and pick up their flowers or their house. Like I would pick up and drop off things like that, and so, as I grew, then I got like a website so people could book online without needing me. And then I eventually got some like my sisters and roommates and people to help me. So, yeah, as far as like managing all of them, um, I don't know, it was just mostly exciting. So it was like if somebody was messaging me.
Speaker 4:I wanted to like get back to them quick because I was.
Speaker 2:So what's the turnaround time then?
Speaker 4:It's long, so depends on the time of year, like October, november or busiest months, um. So it can range anywhere from 12 to 18 weeks.
Speaker 2:And I guess my second question is how soon do they need to get you the flowers?
Speaker 4:within like five days within five days.
Speaker 2:Okay, so there's a five day window From the event, and then it's then the turnaround, but I was actually curious about that.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so most like when they need to get it to you, or else let's just know good.
Speaker 1:So most people probably decided, going into their wedding, that they're gonna do this.
Speaker 4:Yes, got it, most people do or they're at their wedding, they love their bouquet. They don't want to throw it away. So most of our bookings happen on like Sundays or Mondays After an event happened, and then they'll ship us their flowers.
Speaker 2:And so how do they find you? If they're, is this most like google search, like how does a woman or man yeah, anybody. Done with their wedding. For example, there's a bouquet and they're sitting there getting kind of sad.
Speaker 3:Mm-hmm.
Speaker 2:Oh, like we're just gonna throw this away. Mm-hmm, exactly how do they find you at that point?
Speaker 4:Our ideal client. Um, we get people. We have great social media presence, so Instagram. Maybe they knew about us, I'm sure. Maybe at weddings there's like are you gonna preserve your wedding bouquet, things like that. Oh, I didn't think about that. I hope that that kind of stuff is happening. We also have really great SEO presence. So nice, we'd be up there.
Speaker 3:Oh serious.
Speaker 2:Yeah, amazing, because I'd imagine. Yeah, it's, there's got to be SEO Heavy totally for them.
Speaker 1:Create a lot of good content around how to do it, or yeah, because like what are they?
Speaker 2:doing. I don't think people are searching floral preservation and Instagram a whole lot.
Speaker 4:Yeah, they probably aren't maybe now now. Yeah but most of our clients come from google. Yeah, yeah awesome. So I wish we could track better where they originally Knew about us, which could have been through Instagram or somebody else.
Speaker 1:But yeah, we have good so you're going on year five. You're coming up on year five in April.
Speaker 4:So August force will be our favorite. April was the idea, august is when you LLC. Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 1:Um, I think August of 2019 is when we LLC'd really our business.
Speaker 2:And April, the August, was just you know, venmo right.
Speaker 1:Yeah, ideation.
Speaker 4:Wait what Sorry.
Speaker 2:No, it was under the table.
Speaker 4:Venmo, no, she oh, oh, no, no, no, no. So from April.
Speaker 2:That's what she was training herself. Oh, that's what I was training myself. Yeah, that's what she was training.
Speaker 4:August honestly was an LLC creation. It was like Instagram launched everyone knows about me, got it.
Speaker 2:And then January how many hours you think you had to put in to master it. You're just doing this all day, every day.
Speaker 4:Well, even for my first year, I was mastering it, so that's so hard to answer. Because when I look at the vocase that I did at the very beginning, I'm like dang it. It was beautiful and great and awesome, but, like us, now, compared to then, doesn't even compare. Sure, like we are so good at color retention, structure retention, I think that we are the absolute most expert. We have the expertise and preservation above anything else.
Speaker 2:And style, right yeah.
Speaker 1:What have you done to like okay, so you start in 2019 and it's just like organically taking off what? What have been some of the biggest moments that have helped you scale your business?
Speaker 4:Yeah, yeah, that's a good question. I think that lots of big changes in social media were really helpful. So two years in is when I started hiring team members and we moved into a shop. Before that I was doing all out of my backyard and that was when TikTok was taking off and TikTok was a big thing for us.
Speaker 2:You're talking 2020, right.
Speaker 4:This is 2021. 2021.
Speaker 1:This is 2021. And that's.
Speaker 2:TikTok heat. Yep the egg time.
Speaker 4:Bigger than like it ever is right now. I mean, we'll get viral videos every once in a while, but then it was like viral, viral, viral, viral. We were growing like crazy. We got to 187,000 followers in like a few months, but that helped us a ton that year, just like TikTok. Brand awareness. Instagram kept growing and it just came a lot from like that organic content. We didn't do any of like that paid stuff the paid we do paid emails, sms ads or anything like that really at that time and we got into a big article. This is when I learned like SEO was big and I think it's something that's like great for our brand, especially because of the exact same guys we're talking about. Yeah, we got into a big article in bridescom, so that helped a ton with our SEO and like we still get people who come from that article and become clients of ours. So cool.
Speaker 4:Which is really cool, and so influencers.
Speaker 2:I think Trevor claimed that you pro claim that SEO was dead a couple of years ago on the podcast.
Speaker 1:Well, with a caveat. With a caveat, I hope not With problem solution brands. It is not. And you walk the fine line of a want and a problem solution.
Speaker 3:Yeah, and so.
Speaker 1:I think I've always said that. That's my caveat.
Speaker 3:That's true.
Speaker 1:For Laura jewelry, which I put it at her because she's wearing it.
Speaker 4:She told us that she's a customer. Oh nice, that's not crazy. That is crazy I actually wear these earrings like I probably haven't taken off for like eight months.
Speaker 2:Shout out to Kara.
Speaker 1:And that's all. Say that again.
Speaker 2:Kaysville native.
Speaker 1:You don't take yours off for eight months, yeah.
Speaker 4:I got them for my birthday. It was so August actually.
Speaker 1:That's why we built those earrings was so that women never had to take them off. Tarnished proof lifetime.
Speaker 4:Yep, they don't hurt me. Everybody shop at Laura. Give me a code.
Speaker 2:Lifetime warranty. We will get you a code. Shout out to Kara, is it a?
Speaker 4:lifetime warranty.
Speaker 1:On that stuff. Yeah, we have an we call our everyday collection Nice, yeah, lifetime Tarnished. That's so cool. If you like, go break it yourself. Not wanted, but Tarnished proof.
Speaker 4:Yeah, dang, I love that I actually have a warranty on. I love one things that weren't. I just got a new suitcase because I broke.
Speaker 2:Warranties are great. Well, that's awesome. Sorry, but.
Speaker 1:Side note.
Speaker 3:Yeah, seo problem solution. Problem solution.
Speaker 1:Yeah. And not dead there.
Speaker 2:So you, you were put into bridescom. Well, yeah, and it makes sense that why SEO is to be so important for your product. Because there's an educational piece to this. Totally I think sometimes people are like oh, maybe I can do it.
Speaker 4:Yep.
Speaker 2:And then they probably read about it and they're like oh actually.
Speaker 4:I'd rather put this into professionals hands. Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:And then they're like oh, I'm not just maybe something that, yeah, I mess up.
Speaker 1:Yeah, speaking of that, like you said something that's interesting, like you get probably a ton of people who think they can do this on their own Right yeah. And I'm sure because of that you've also had a ton of people who have started their own companies.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 1:That kind of copy or mimic, do similar things to you. What? What have you guys done to build your brand Totally so that people decide this is, oh, you know, because you got it was like, either I can do this myself, I can go find somebody who's maybe cheaper because I'm sure there are people who are cheaper than you or I'm going to go to press floor. Why are? What have you guys done to have it so that you can continue to grow and be successful?
Speaker 4:Yeah, I think that's great and there's a lot of like loaded things to go with that. But to kind of back up your question, people who ruin their flowers, it's it's so sad and we have a lot of people who kind of market for us because when we do have things to go viral or just like videos on whatever it may be or just in our emails, we'll get a lot of comments that are like I tried this myself, I sent this to my sister, right, somebody who like said that they could do it my flowers molded, they browned, they, they lost whatever it was. Because it really you can, anybody can press like wild flowers, small little flowers.
Speaker 4:But, if you try and press a rose, I guarantee both you guys would mold it like right now. What? Or proteas, like succulents? We?
Speaker 2:can press succulents, all these things, that. It's funny she's saying that, because when you're talking about bookmarks, my boys just pressed wild flowers and gave them as bookmarks to their grandmas and but yeah, apparently wildflowers are really easy.
Speaker 3:I don't know why?
Speaker 2:Yeah, why are wildflowers easy?
Speaker 4:They're thin. They don't have a ton of water in them, so they're basically already dry. You just have to flatten them to what they need to be.
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Speaker 4:So, like we came out with Press World Journal, that you can press flowers into it, we give you the instructions you need and you can keep those memories and it's built for flowers like that. But sunflowers, peonies, think about these flowers that would just get destroyed if you put them in a book. So, anyways, we have a lot of people who have kind of marketed for us in the sense of I tried this myself and it didn't work.
Speaker 4:And so when you have something that's so special and it should be once in a lifetime when it comes to wedding bouquets but we also do like memorial arrangements we recreate things. If they got married years and years ago, then you really only have one chance to do it, and so it really depends on how sentimental our clients are, and how much? They love the flowers that they have. Because you don't want to take the chance or the risk that it'll get ruined because Press World won't ruin it, because it's one and done.
Speaker 2:Yeah, if you mess it up, it's gone.
Speaker 1:Have you guys ever used any of those comments or reviews about how I tried this on my own or whatever? Do you guys do paid ads?
Speaker 4:Yeah, we do paid ads. We're revamping right now. I'm curious who thought Go ahead, keep going.
Speaker 2:I'm just curious Because we should? We should do something like that. Well, you should be using those social comments as ads.
Speaker 1:That would be an absolute epic ad.
Speaker 4:We use them for other TikToks or reels, but we totally should use them for an actual paid ads.
Speaker 2:Yeah, retarding would crush.
Speaker 4:Yeah, we'll do that. Yeah, what's?
Speaker 2:fascinating about your process is you have it's really a two-part process. So for someone to say, I'm going to do it on my own there's the preservation, so there's the science of preservation, but you just kind of explain why wildflowers are easy and then why other flowers are harder, and then you have the artistic side. So the presentation of the preservation. And so what makes you guys? So you kind of describe why you're unique for preservation.
Speaker 1:You need to go work for that.
Speaker 4:You're welcome, just hire me up.
Speaker 2:I'm going to work at Presto Laurel.
Speaker 4:No but you are nailing it, you're nailing it.
Speaker 1:Sorry, ask your question.
Speaker 2:Yeah, just send me on. I'll just go on a speaking tour to every wedding.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 4:I'll just show up Like a snake oil salesman outside. Yeah.
Speaker 3:So the preservation, the science and then the presentation and the art.
Speaker 2:So what makes you guys so much better, not just at the preservation, but now you have the presentation. Where do you think you became the artistic?
Speaker 4:Totally. Yeah. So our style is beautiful. I mean, everybody has a certain style, just like in photography, if you like it or not. But that was one of the hardest things for me to train when I was first hiring team members, because it was so specific to me in my eye and what I thought looked good. And it isn't just easily trainable, it is a very trained art that my entire design team has learned. And so, yeah, I mean, our style is very specific to Presto Laurel, how we design things.
Speaker 4:We have had people be like I pressed my own flowers. I can't get it to look good, will you design it for me? Things like that. But we press all of our flowers based off of how we design, and it all just blends together as well, because our frames, like the glass that we use, the backing that we use, everything is like the best quality. It's meant to last forever, for generations and generations to come. So you're right, the science behind the preservation is something that if you don't know how to do that, you will destroy your flowers. You won't even have a chance to design, and it is a big artistry in and of itself. And then taking it to the design stages, like the next part, where you could have great pressed flowers, but being able to make it look good, you need an artist.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so originally you said not originally, but before in this podcast you mentioned that sometimes you look back and you're like, oh, because I'm sure you gain more skills and eye for the artistry. So how did you develop that? Was it just practice? Did you take any art classes? Like, how did you come up with this entire process for creating this art?
Speaker 4:Yeah, I mean I've been creative from the beginning, so I've always loved the creative aspect of a lot of things. I think a lot of it also came down to preservation and learning to preserve certain blooms in different ways that are actually better, because all of you can't create a piece of art if you don't press the sunflower correctly or whatever it may be, and so how we've also preserved flowers has morphed that design over time and just practicing with all different types of arrangements, because no bouquet is the same and so practice time. Yeah, I mean, I think that's hard. I think that any artist would just be like it's something that has just been like taught and thought in my mind of what looks beautiful and great, and then I've had to teach that to other people.
Speaker 2:So and what's been the biggest challenge of teaching that.
Speaker 4:Everyone kind of has their own eye for what is beautiful to them, so you kind of have to morph that in some people's eyes If they're like I want to design it this way, ok. Well, that's not the press floral style and design. But we also have clients who want us to do abstract. We have abstract, different ways that we can design things, and so that's the hardest part is when you kind of have to morph maybe a designer's view on what they think would look good into something. That's because we need to standardize what our, our final design will look like, which is beautiful, but also something else could be beautiful, but we need to know, like what our clients can expect for what the final piece will look like because consistency is probably better than One hit wonders right.
Speaker 2:Consistently great rather than right, like, oh, let's try to change our process and our standard, because then? Because, yeah, you have the preservation side, then you have to present it and the end press pressing flowers, like you just said, is completely different.
Speaker 3:Right.
Speaker 2:The way you can even shape certain flowers, and so yeah, that's real. I mean, that's just really interesting, like the artistic side, because selling art is hard.
Speaker 4:Totally, and it's customer. Yeah, for sure, we are artists, yeah.
Speaker 1:I think what's the reason why?
Speaker 2:it's called starving artists. Yeah, right, yeah, because it's hard to sell art.
Speaker 1:Totally, mm. Hmm, I don't want to have this isn't a question, this is just a thought that I'm just like having. Yeah, what I love about this kind of discussion is there's Mark and I have talked a lot about on the podcast that there's this line that constantly comes up is like behind every great marketer or brand is a better product, and I what I love about your business is you guys are always having to make your product better, mm hmm, Every time an artist Designs a piece, they're practicing and getting better at what they do, sure, and you're probably making.
Speaker 1:I don't know what the like mistake rate is on these. I don't know if you guys count something like that or if you're looking at those things but I'm sure the amount of mistakes go down. I'm sure the like amount of client reviews go up. But I love this because I think that there are so many people out there who are just creating products Like we live in. We live in a day and age nowadays where it's hard to have your 2019 epiphany moments, april 2019 at 2 am of. Oh my gosh, no one's doing this Right. There's just, I think, with the, with the, with the creator economy and how, there's so much content out there and just so many people out there giving out ideas of how to go make money. Right, you see those tiktoks all the time, hey here's 10 ways you can go make money.
Speaker 1:You know it. Just, it gets more and more challenging to find new creative ideas, and so most people are selling and copying from other people, and so that's why I think it's so wildly important that you can't, you can't. It's just not enough to have a good product anymore. You have to have a great product and, on top of that, build a brand that's very, very cool or sentimental or special, whatever, whatever you know you want to tie yourself to. So let's see, this was not a question. Just this is where my mind's kind of going with some of this stuff. Yeah, it's really cool.
Speaker 2:Well, I also love that. What you've done is you've entered into what most people might be scared to enter into, which is a very saturated competitive market Right, the bridal space, and even you know I know you do more than just that, but I'm assuming at the beginning the vast majority of your customers were bridals.
Speaker 3:Yeah, that's true.
Speaker 2:That's a crazy competitive quote. Most people say saturated market, but because you introduced something that was innovative and new, you were just able to break through that market. And obviously because of the marketing and your social strategies, right, yeah, so it speaks volumes to just like you know, I think sometimes people just say, oh, why are it's competitive? But you didn't that, didn't even cross your mind once. You like, you just went for it.
Speaker 4:Totally. I mean we had a vast ocean of opportunity because it was a whole new industry that press world created.
Speaker 3:Totally.
Speaker 4:So I've always thought that the bridal world is actually great worlds to enter if you can do it in a way that's not saturated. Yeah, because people will always get married and, it's true, they'll always want to spend money on their weddings, because they should.
Speaker 1:It's very true, unless they're in Utah.
Speaker 4:Unless they're in Utah, have their more budgeted?
Speaker 1:Yes, have you noticed a difference, like because you know statistically people are getting married less? Has that impacted your business at all? Or are you not really seeing?
Speaker 4:Well, I can actually yeah. What do you want to answer that no?
Speaker 2:you go ahead. Sorry, your face was saying like you didn't. You haven't really looked into that, but you're right. But it's the same thing as people are having less kids but they spend more per kid. So, like, your wallet share isn't going down even though, like marriages have maybe not gone up as a growth rate. Yeah For population. So yeah, even though you're having like less people as a percent get married at certain ages.
Speaker 4:People spend far more on their weddings Interesting we also, I think, the last two years were like the biggest two years of weddings historically because of COVID, covid, yeah. And then the aftermath of them.
Speaker 2:Yeah, everyone wanted a big event. Everyone wanted a big event. They had to postpone.
Speaker 4:Yeah, and so I'm sure that's probably the case, but also with maybe weddings decreasing. It's still an industry we have like such a small percentage of the potential market. Still people are like I didn't even know that this is something I could do, so I still think there's a ton of opportunities.
Speaker 2:And I don't think it's shrinking, I just think the growth rate right Just because it goes with population but because less of the population is getting married, but, it's true, less people are. Totally, yeah, decided they want to get married all the time, but they spend more money.
Speaker 1:Of the last four years in business. Which of those four years was like? Your Was the year where you were like oh my gosh, I like.
Speaker 4:That was the year I can't believe that this happened.
Speaker 4:I know that's hard, because I it's been like every year, because we've been able to like we've had such great growth years. I'm not this last year, but the year before is when we moved from my first location, which was like a thousand square feet, to our current location. Now that's about 6,800. We started in one side and we expanded to the other actually just last year, but that jump, I feel like was really big and seemed risky because of how big of the space it was. But we grew a ton that year. We added a ton of people to our team. So I feel like that was probably a really foundational, pivotal year. Awesome Because of that. But once again, like we do keep there's a lot of innovation still available, kind of in this space.
Speaker 4:So for sure, yeah, all years have been great.
Speaker 1:What was what's been like your favorite accomplishment in the last four years with this?
Speaker 4:Let me think.
Speaker 1:Like, for example, I was watching one of your TikToks and you were pleading for people to help you get in touch with anthropology. Yes so it sounds like that's a huge like.
Speaker 4:Accomplishment that they reached out to me. I saw you reach out to them, yeah.
Speaker 1:Nothing, nothing's come yet.
Speaker 4:Not yet, not yet Hopefully. Okay, my biggest accomplishment oh, I think that there's a lot of really massive influencers we've been able to work with that have been like big accomplishments for us. We've we've gotten a lot of people in the bachelor space. So I don't know if you guys watch the bachelor or the bachelor yet, but I do. Do you?
Speaker 1:Are you watching it today? Trevor's Joey.
Speaker 4:Yeah, of course he's, awesome.
Speaker 2:He's the bachelor's biggest fan right here.
Speaker 4:Yeah, I love the bachelor.
Speaker 2:I'm a bigger bachelor in.
Speaker 1:Paradise.
Speaker 4:Guy, yeah, me too. Just to be honest with you, I am too, can I?
Speaker 1:say something though. Yeah, have you ever heard of the brand Evora watches? Does that sound familiar?
Speaker 3:No.
Speaker 1:Rigdon, if he's listening to this, actually think he does listen to this. He looks just like the bachelor.
Speaker 2:It's really.
Speaker 1:I'll show you a comparison new, the new batch yeah. Yeah, he's a handsome guy yeah, so Rigdon, there you go. Sorry, no, it's fine.
Speaker 4:It's fine, it's fine. But I think there's a lot of big things. I can't think of them off the top of my head, but I think that that was all, every single one of those. We saw such great brand awareness for us. So, getting people on the back because there's influencers in Utah and they all kind of are the same demographic of people sometimes, and so when we've got people who are outside of the state of Utah and have like this big Bachelor following or whatever, I mean we actually see big surges. I thought those were really great being featured in different sort of articles. But I we had we had a big event where we had like over 500 people show up. That was something that was big there's. There's all these different pivotal moments where I feel like really added to our brand and brand awareness. It's hard to pick up one. I hope anthropology snags us, because that'll be a big one.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's a really really cool thing. Yeah, we, we got, I got, we got the chance to do something with anthropology.
Speaker 4:You did, yeah. What did you do with them?
Speaker 1:We did a custom diaper bag. Oh, with fun yeah that is so cool, and so we got to go out to their headquarters in Philly dang and designed it all with their design team. Wow it was like one of the coolest a shout out to Jenny. Yeah yeah, it was career moves that I got to participate in. I did not do any of the design work.
Speaker 4:Yeah, jenny did, but I facilitated the entire thing yeah, that's so cool, just for like even brand awareness. I mean, I don't know what the financial impact was for that, I'm sure it was so bad awareness was awesome put the brand awareness and the experience and like that's just really cool.
Speaker 1:Well, I'm excited for you. That's awesome.
Speaker 2:There's something just to be included in, maybe a company that you've looked up to Totally.
Speaker 4:Yeah, I mean the store, the way our store looks, the storefront. I've always said from the beginning we want anthropology vibes like earthy, beautiful, bright colors, fun, flirty, that kind of thing and so yeah, like we match well and what you're talking about the influencers that's.
Speaker 2:That's really keen, because we talk about it all the time is that you know people to always have a hot take about influencers.
Speaker 3:Mm-hmm.
Speaker 2:But what you said is people don't know how to differentiate. Like that, a lot of influencers might have crossover with their Audience and the kinds of people that follow them. Yep, where you were narrowing down on these bachelor contestants.
Speaker 3:I'm assuming right or bachelorette Contestants.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah. So participants contest, actors, lovers actors.
Speaker 3:Yeah, well.
Speaker 2:Sometimes, Are they? I don't know.
Speaker 1:TV stars. Tv stars reality.
Speaker 2:Yeah and that and you found like that was your niche and you just like went after it and then it Validified your brand.
Speaker 1:That's a pretty cool thing, because there are a lot of people who try to tap into the bachelor nation. That's what they call it bachelor nation. Yes, yeah and it doesn't work for a lot of them. Yeah, because the reason, one of the reasons why a lot of people this is my theory, okay one of the reasons why a lot of people try to tap into the bachelor contestants is because they, almost overnight, become influencers.
Speaker 1:Yeah okay, and so they don't understand. To the same extent as people who grew up saying I'm gonna be an influencer, I'm gonna build my life to do that, they don't understand the rules as much, and so it's sometimes it's easier to connect to some of those people because they just they went from 5,000 followers or 2,000 followers.
Speaker 4:Yeah, and so they're just excited about it.
Speaker 1:And so they're just excited and so sometimes it's just a little easier to connect them. They may not have as an experienced PR guy.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:I don't know, you know, and so a lot of people try to go into that market. But what's nice about you is you're so like bachelor, is so tied to weddings and love that that is. What your business is tied to. Yeah you know, because even at FON we tried to tie into that and it was less about love and more About babies which and it didn't work as much for us. Yeah, because of that, you know. Yeah, so I love that you guys found that little niche.
Speaker 4:Yeah, well, the thing that's great about our product and I think it's important for all types of brands is to find someone who will genuinely love what you create, so that you can get content that actually converts people, because I you could just tell when somebody's being robotic about something. Yeah, and so we. I mean we've worked with really great, we've worked with Simone Biles this last year, which was crazy. She actually didn't end up posting us, but her sister did.
Speaker 2:She got married to that Green Bay guy, right I?
Speaker 1:Don't know. Was he the guy who was pretending like he didn't know who she?
Speaker 4:was yes. Yeah, I was just gonna say like there was a lot of drama about that. I know people were like I.
Speaker 2:Why would he lie about that though?
Speaker 4:I don't know, he probably didn't, but it's just like how he said it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, it could totally be true.
Speaker 3:Yeah it was crazy, though, it was just how he did it. Yeah, biggest yeah she's crazy she's wildly famous yeah, yeah.
Speaker 4:Yeah, so she was big. The thing is it's just one of those things that if you want it it's priceless and you just are so emotionally tied to the service that press floral has. And so when we reach out to them some we get go still all the time. And Bachelor nation sometimes is hard to capture, but when somebody does see a message from press for all, if it's something that they want, they're all over it.
Speaker 1:I'm betting that do you get a lot of people who read like big influencers who actually reach out? To you I bet you know we're doing product just seems like that type of product where you not to say that your team still don't have to work Extremely hard to get to certain people. But I bet you guys get some good people who reach out to you because you've made a great product. Yeah, and you are solving a problem.
Speaker 4:Well, and you said it early, you guys created a new category Mm-hmm right totally, and if you want to get your wedding bouquet preserved, okay, I'm the founder, so sure, maybe I'm biased, but also I truly believe we are like the best Person on the market to be able to do it, the best quality and the best outcome of how your flowers will turn out, and so, hopefully, if somebody wants to get their wedding bouquet preserved, though, they'll reach out to us, and so we do. We do get influencers who will reach out to us.
Speaker 2:We'll get lots of different types of people who ask if we'll do something like that you don't have to be modest either. You can just say you are the best yeah.
Speaker 4:We, we hope we can always be. We're just getting started.
Speaker 2:You're not biased, you're just the best.
Speaker 4:No, it's true, it's true.
Speaker 1:That's awesome, we are what, okay? So tell me this we asked, okay, what was your biggest, like most exciting thing? What's let's maybe been the biggest mistake? Yeah you've made today. Yeah, you're willing.
Speaker 4:No for sure, in the marketing front.
Speaker 4:Sure, totally yeah cuz there's lots of mistakes everywhere, but I'm Actually fits in perfect because of the influencer worlds and we had. We had a really probably the biggest influencer that has ever reached out to us. They have like 9 million followers on Instagram or something like that and, yeah, it's probably our biggest mistake just on how we were sort of approaching it. So some background on it. We were just sort of learning how to approach influencers and we were we got burned like a little bit of influence and we were we got burned like a little bit before this, for from an influencer, we created a beautiful product. They didn't post about it, cuz we don't contract or anything like that. We just know we believe in our product and we know they'll love it and so they'll share it and if they don't, then they don't but it's gonna be.
Speaker 1:Don't pay anybody.
Speaker 4:We don't pay anyone. We give them our product for free.
Speaker 1:That's awesome.
Speaker 4:But then we we get genuine responses.
Speaker 4:Genuine reactions because once again, it's priceless and we don't want robotic yeah, videos, and so, anyways, we had this influencer reach out to us 9 million plus followers, so wild and we were trying to mitigate Okay, we really want them to post about us. Like. Tick tock is where we've seen great feedback, and so we were going back and forth on like okay, we would love if you, you shared on tick tock, whatever. And it was kind of like I mean, I can't say I will like Instagram stories maybe, um, and then we kind of pushed again and we got ghosted. Um, and then when we reached out again, we found out that they decided to go a different direction and ended up getting like, not getting. They're, okay, preserved by us, which was, I mean, I don't know what the financial impact would have been from that Sure, but 9 million followers and like if they did end up posting about us.
Speaker 2:This is kind of earlier in the. This is a couple years ago. Growth, right, yeah.
Speaker 4:Yeah, so what've been? It's tough, it's tough.
Speaker 1:It's one of those things we learned from, and do you feel like that happened because you guys were trying to push them a little? Yes, 100%.
Speaker 4:I think that if we would have just been like and this is exactly what we do now, and we were just with the learning phases if we would have just been like, no, we will just gift it to you, we're not gonna ask you to do anything, I know they would have posted about it and I mean, at least I hope it helped they would have.
Speaker 1:Um, so yeah, that one was a tough one, that's harsh, how many of the people that you do do it for free. If you had to tie a percentage, how many have ended up posting about you?
Speaker 4:I think we've only had like one or two, not Wow, that's so cool. And we've worked with 50 ish probably what's it.
Speaker 2:I know brands are different, but would you advise that for most brands is to Just gift instead of trying to pay for assassins?
Speaker 4:I. I think it probably does depend on the brand. I just as a viewer, I've noticed robotic behavior so easily. So if someone's telling you how to post an ad, what verbiage to use, like things like that, I can tell when it's not organic and and real. So there has to be some genuine aspect to it, I think. But not all companies probably can pull that off.
Speaker 1:I don't know. Yeah, no, I think you're. I think that makes a lot of sense.
Speaker 4:Especially if it's something that people can live without. But if you want to get your bouquet preserved and you want it done by us, then, um, you're gonna get it done by us regardless. But if it's shampoo, it's like something like that, okay, I don't need to post about this because I'm not tied to it emotionally.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you know when it seems like you have a really good, I Also just feel for your, your audience and what they want to see. So you just said, you know if it doesn't feel Real to you. Yeah from the influencer side, then you don't want your brand to kind of reflect, fake Totally. How do you, how do you look at your ads and the kind of ad creation or creatives that you use To make sure that it resonates with your audience?
Speaker 4:yeah, um, ads are honestly something that we're still always working on, but Using like very high quality content for us has been something that's important, and like showing what this product is in like a home or with you, and like really keen into those words of like don't let your flowers die, like these are. These are meant to live on for generations and generations to come. It's not just something that you'll you'll love for a short amount of time. It's something that you'll you can pass down to your kids, and so it's really come down to copyright and, um, the quality of content we have. We haven't done UGC like there's, there's things like that.
Speaker 2:So you, so you kind of avoid UGC. I'm glad you brought that up, because I think the trend right now is everyone jumped on UGC.
Speaker 4:Yeah.
Speaker 2:But you've identified for your brand you want to portray maybe high quality longevity, so you spend more kind of attention or time into higher quality creatives. Can you define higher quality creative for listeners?
Speaker 4:Yeah, yeah, um A camera like not iphone, which is it's kind of different than the trends of what people are saying.
Speaker 3:But Um, but your product is different.
Speaker 4:It's different and it's it's higher value and it takes a lot more Thought for somebody to decide that they want to use that. But High quality meaning we use a camera for basically all of our footage on all of our social content. So also, yeah, for all of our instagram stories. It's always a camera, um, and then obviously all of our posts and then reels if we're doing something that's more of an aesthetic. But UGC we Just the way that UGC works, where you send somebody a product and if it's not just theirs, it's, it's right down to the same thing as before, where I don't feel like it's a genuine reaction to what our product is. And so, um, we do have smaller price products that UGC could work for and we should try. But, yeah, ugc Not for our ads, at least what we've tried so far.
Speaker 2:Yeah, also, how much of that is? Because what am I trying to say? To present your product colors Like the true color ratio, or what do you call that abby? Like what's the color Making? Sure the real color comes through on a camera saturation.
Speaker 3:Whatever it's called the detail, the texture.
Speaker 2:Yeah, the detail and the texture and the color and you're dealing with frames too, so you can get glare. Yeah, so an iPhone Isn't going to be able to capture it in certain kinds of lighting or whatever.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's kind of like a iPhone and a sunset. Yeah, so I'm going to catch to the same way that.
Speaker 2:A true DSLR.
Speaker 4:You're not going to buy a piece of art if it's like recorded to you with an iPhone kind of thing. Yeah, same kind of concept like the Mona.
Speaker 2:Lisa won't ever look better on an iPhone camera.
Speaker 1:Well, eventually maybe, but yeah, right now Well, I actually think I actually I mean I like these. Like what you guys both said, your product's different, it's a little higher end, so that's why the trends maybe aren't necessarily for you in this situation and I, I really love this concept because I think you know. Another thing that a lot of businesses get caught up is they. We get so caught up in watching what everyone else is doing.
Speaker 1:Everyone else is on iPhones right now, so therefore I need to have iPhone. Everyone else is using user-generated, generated content, and we're not saying that that's bad right? No, it's not, it works really good for for many brands, um, but I love that you kind of like your true north isn't what everyone else is doing, your true north is what you guys feel like you need to do, and so, um, I think that's another really important piece here for us to remember is like there's this book. There's this book by marty newmeyer called Zag you ever heard this book before?
Speaker 1:I'm not a big book guy, so I don't love to like pitch books, you know. But there's this book.
Speaker 3:It's a small read to throw them.
Speaker 1:That's true.
Speaker 2:Yeah. I don't like to play like pitch ball yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, thank you, but it's called zag right, and the whole purpose of this book there's. He introduces this idea. That it's, it's.
Speaker 1:It's called the good different chart and there's four different quadrants, and good is going up and down, and different is going right and left, and when you really want to be on this quadrant isn't. You don't want to be down here and in the quadrant closest to the corner, because that is Not good and not different. Yeah right, you don't want to be up at the very top, because that's good and not different. You don't want to be down on the bottom but to the far right because that's not good and different. You want to be up here where you're good and different. So I think sometimes, when you get so caught up in Watching what everyone else is doing, you become what everyone else is and therefore you don't stand out. The premise of that book is zag, so when everyone's digging, you should.
Speaker 1:Interesting there you go.
Speaker 4:I like that, marty. I think that applies to a lot of different things. It's like other people that are in your industry are doing things way that a whole different industry, just like the trends of everything. If you want to stick out, you really have to have your own ways that you're doing things 100% and so we try to queue in on telling emotional stories like these.
Speaker 4:These flowers have meaning beyond just a wedding day. Maybe they selected these flowers because they have the same name as their grandma, who passed away a few years ago, or just different things that these flowers are truly priceless.
Speaker 4:And so we, we tell the stories we queue into people's emotions or, yeah, really making sure that we're capturing the quality. It's hard for us to find other companies that are similar in tactics, as in it applies to a lot of different things. If we need an ad to be able to work in some Production sense because of a problem we have, it is a very unique business. Essentially, we've taken something that you do on Etsy and built on a large scale, and so there are a lot of things that I feel like we have to do differently. Yeah, and but it is something that our viewers like, because it is something that they don't see all the time.
Speaker 4:So, I think it works in our favor.
Speaker 2:Has it been hard for you to maintain that uniqueness? Have you ever been tempted? She's like, oh, we should just do a ton of UGC and like jump into a trend.
Speaker 4:Oh yeah, for sure, especially if you're like honing in on somebody else and how fast they're growing, or like in any type of business. I think it's easy for people to be like, oh, I need to do this, but it's good to have people on my team who Our brand director she really like levels me out on. What are you talking about? Yeah you're not even on that level. Yeah, don't even think about that kind of.
Speaker 2:I was gonna tie this back to, like the leadership I was gonna ask you about that is how do you, how do you maintain your brand stays on the straight and narrow for for what you guys are doing yeah. They're getting distracted by all these other companies or potential competitors.
Speaker 4:Yeah, I don't really hone in on our other potential companies that could be similar to us. There's different people on my team that is their job to make sure that we're always it. We need to be aware, but I don't want what other people are doing to sway what our path is and like the decisions we make for things. So, when it comes to brand and making sure, I mean we just hired a brand director. She used to be my assistant and she's now working on how we can make sure that communication in all levels of production are the same and tied to our brand and content for all of our platforms. And but, yeah, how does that answer your question on it? Just I think out of sight, out of mind, to make sure that I have such a clear vision on where I want press floral to go and when I look at the way other people are doing things in any type of business, sometimes it helps. But really, like honing on this path Okay, how can we get there?
Speaker 1:and then resort like helping, having other people who can Help me with their resources, this thing- any, any brands I know you said anthropology, but any other brands that are like your inspiration, and maybe not your competitors, obviously, but like yeah, we're inspiring you to go, yeah.
Speaker 4:I love made by Mary. I love Mary Moody. I don't know if you guys know, her. But I Love just like their concept of telling stories with their accessories and their luxury brand and I love even like thread I'm. I love Mackenzie and Colby, but they build stories behind what they do and create. And but we also looked at companies like cozy, earth or Purple. These places that are have higher-end Products. They're like price-tire and their luxury in their space. Okay, like what do they do? How can we like learn from them things?
Speaker 1:like that, super smart. Yeah one last question I have for you, before we kind of wrap things up, is like what are one of the what's one of the biggest mistakes?
Speaker 4:you're just seeing brands today 2024 making yeah, and maybe this is all kind of like a tie-in, but I feel like sure, the biggest Mistake brands are making is being robotic with things either based off of what they're learning on the when I can tie it back to exactly is an emails or captions. I can tell if something's being generated by chat, gbt, things like that that seem maybe robotic or I'm just doing things like others are doing. But really figuring out your brand and the voice you want to portray in the types of photography that you want to put out there in content, and Sticking to that, I think, is what's important, and not being robotic with the way that you present your thing, your stuff.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I like that, literally robotic and yeah, literally robotic right, but how do you or what would your Advice be to a company or a fellow founder or marketer To stay authentic? Right, like, how do they listen to their own intuition rather than just trying to copy and paste?
Speaker 4:yeah, I think it all comes down to people's why. I'm like what they are creating I mean, business owners are creating businesses to build them and created a great brand that can Build their life to be what they want. But also like what do you believe in In your product and why are you selling that? And why we do press florals to be able to give something that they can Remember forever from a memory or a person or something special, and so honing in on that and then making everything else come from that, I think, is what is so important, and so I think that can apply to a lot of different brands, whether it's Just any type of product yeah building that all off of a Y, even as trends are changing and you're bringing more products into your catalogs.
Speaker 4:You should have one reason why you're doing it all because that's where your audience is, and If they love that part of what you're doing, then they might also love all the other products that you're continually adding and the content You're creating and things like that.
Speaker 2:Well, just to tie this into to, the Swifties, let's just do full circle really quick.
Speaker 1:I think that's. There's no better way. Yeah, there isn't. Is a Taylor?
Speaker 2:Swift. Although she's changed genres, it seems like that she's maintained the why? Yeah right, it's true. And so she resonates and she continues to resonate very strongly with her audience and build an audience. Yeah, but it's allowed her to do things. I think that other artists have a hard time doing, because sometimes they try to just Change everything or change their style, and also their message is changing, where she's kind of Altered her message, but her message has really been a slow, gradual progression. Yeah, probably her why Of the?
Speaker 1:her songwriting has always been pretty solid, yeah, so you know you may not be a Taylor Swift music fan, but I think you're a fan of Taylor Swift.
Speaker 2:the person oh yeah, I am, yeah, yeah, I've never actually listened to one of her songs all the way through.
Speaker 4:I don't believe that I mean maybe at a restaurant, but I don't buy it.
Speaker 1:I've never wait should we spend the next three minutes?
Speaker 2:of the podcast listening to a song.
Speaker 1:We can If you guys want. It really would be my first time I like analyzing her, though, like as a.
Speaker 4:Yeah she's. Yeah, so I think what she needs to do is she needs when she gets married.
Speaker 2:Yeah, Travis Kelsey. Yeah, because it's not a piercing Hopefully.
Speaker 1:Yeah, then. Then she needs to get her flowers pressed and preserved, and I think it's gonna up your business, because I think she's gonna start a phenomenon of she's getting married I should get married too Totally. So she's gonna. She's gonna flip the wow. You think she's about that kind of sway?
Speaker 2:I do think she'll create a wedding spike.
Speaker 1:Not only will she create a wedding spike but if she, if she, she found her man, dare this happen. She has a baby and decides to put her career somewhat on the back burner. You think people would have more babies?
Speaker 2:That is so interesting. I think she is the most influential woman in the world.
Speaker 1:Well, if she gets her bouquet preserved, then everybody will get their bouquet preserved.
Speaker 4:And and she should, and I stand by that comment. I don't think there's a more influential woman.
Speaker 2:Okay well we got to create a marketing campaign right, yeah, let's start now with press floral to educate taylor on. The art of preservation. Someone who's listening to this, if you have a contact somewhere.
Speaker 1:Do something about it. Do something about it. Well, sarah, thank you so much For joining us. This has been very enjoyable. It's been great. Yeah, yeah, thanks, we're great. Everyone's so much.
Speaker 3:Where can people find you and where can people find press floral?
Speaker 1:Yeah, I'm On, we're both on Instagram.
Speaker 4:Press floral comm press floral underscore and I'm not as interested in press floral, but my name's sarah ebert and you can find me. Thank you so much for joining us.
Speaker 1:We appreciate it. Thank you everybody for listening and we'll see you next time. Thank you everybody for listening and we will see you next week. Thank you so much for listening to the unstoppable marketer podcast. Please go rate and subscribe the podcast, whether it's good or bad. We want to hear from you because we always want to make this podcast better. If you want to get in touch with me or give me any direct feedback, please go follow me and get in touch with me. I am at the trevor crump on both instagram and tiktok. Thank you, and we will see you next week.