Podcasts about farmgirl

Jeffrey Mosher welcomes back Karen Mead, Co-Owner of Farmgirl Flea Market, Hudsonville, MI He had several questions for Karen in this conversation: 1. Tell us a bit about Farmgirl Flea's Spring Market? 2. What can people find at this year's market? 3. What's the importance of shopping locally? 4. What sets Farmgirl apart from other flea markets? 5. How can people learn more about this market and the others you have coming up? ● Spring Market Details ○ May 16 from 4-8 p.m. ○ May 17 from 9-4 p.m. ○ Featuring more than 150 makers at Hudsonville Fairgrounds ○ 9th annual market has live music, drinks, & food trucks ○ Discover artisan and thrift goods, antiques, vintages, handmade items, boutique clothing, baked goods, and more. ● Ticket Info ○ $15 for a full weekend ticket, Friday and Saturday, only available online ○ $10 Friday general admission ○ $7 Saturday general admission ○ Kids 12 and under and veterans and active military members are free ○ Tickets can be purchased at www.farmgirlflea.com or at the gate the day of with cash only ● Economic Impact ○ The market for handicrafts and artisan-made goods continues to grow. ○ In 2024, the handicrafts market reached more than $906 billion. ○ It's projected to grow to almost $2 trillion by 2033. ○ With many small businesses struggling right now, the Spring Market is a great way to support several vendors in one location and shop locally.

In this episode our Sales Director, Abbi, takes the mic, and we depart from Tech for one week only!We had the pleasure of chatting with a variety of guests from the brand new MarketHalls location, including Paddington Bear himself, Richard from Farmgirl, Hayley, the head of property for MarketHalls, and many more. Here are three key takeaways that stood out to me:The Power of Community Engagement

Jeffrey Mosher welcomes back Karen Mead, Co-Owner of Farmgirl Flea Market, Hudsonville, MI. Talking Points ● Farmgirl Flea Fall Market is returning for its 9th annual event, featuring over 180 vendors, primarily from Michigan. ● The market plays a crucial role in supporting Michigan's small businesses, which employ 48.3% of the state's workforce. ● Farmgirl Flea aligns with Michigan's sustainability goals by promoting vintage, upcycled, and handmade goods. ● The event has become a significant economic driver for Hudsonville and surrounding communities. ● Live music performances and a variety of food vendors enhance the community atmosphere of the market. ● Early bird tickets are available, offering access to both days of the event at a discounted price. ● Farmgirl Flea is committed to fostering a strong, sustainable local economy in West Michigan. Questions covered in this discussion: ● What inspired the creation of Farmgirl Flea, and how has it grown over the past nine years? ● How does Farmgirl Flea contribute to Michigan's small business ecosystem? ● Can you elaborate on the sustainability aspects of the market and how it supports Michigan's environmental goals? ● What economic impact have you observed in Hudsonville and nearby areas as a result of the Farmgirl Flea markets? ● How do you select and support the vendors who participate in your events? ● What can visitors expect at this year's Fall Market in terms of products, entertainment, and overall experience? ● Looking ahead, what are your plans for Farmgirl Flea's future growth and continued support of local businesses? About Farmgirl Flea Farmgirl Flea offers three markets every year that feature a variety of vintage, antique, and handmade artisan goods from local small businesses. We offer tons of family-friendly fun, including live entertainment and a delicious variety of foods. Customers can expect upwards of 180 vendors at our Spring and Fall Markets and over 250 vendors at our Holiday event! No matter what you're looking for, you'll find it at Farmgirl Flea. Our GOAL is to connect with our community while supporting local and having fun while doing it. Bring your family and friends as there is truly something for everyone at the Farmgirl Flea markets.

Jeffrey Mosher welcomes Karen Mead, antique lovers and flea market shopper, Co-Owner, Farmgirl Flea Spring Market, Hudsonville, MI ● This is the 9th annual Spring Market. Can you give us a little background on how you got here? ● In your opinion, what's causing the growth of flea markets in recent years? ● What makes this market unique? ● How do shoppers support the vendors? ● You have an array of vendors. How do you ensure that the market supports the development of small businesses? About Farmgirl Flea: Farmgirl Flea offers an array of handmade and curated goods by local vendors for local consumers. With its three main flea markets and markets held throughout the year, Farmgirl Flea is recognized nationwide for its signature farmhouse aesthetic and wide range of selections. Located in Hudsonville, Michigan Farmgirl Flea services the West Michigan area. For more information, visit www.farmgirlflea.com.

OFX EPISODE 167: BREWS WITH BETH AGAIN  Brought to you by Duonamic and Airrelax.ca. We are a little late, but that's because we had to postpone an episode to coordinate with a race company's announcement. We will let you draw your own conclusions from that. That episode drops later this week. In this episode, Dave and Beth are all over the map talking FarmGirl's Deka Strong event, Hyrox, when to yell at people and when not to, even kids hockey and dogs. Our discount codes for you: Spartan/DEKAfit: SPARTAN24-4271W Athletic Brew: DAVEC20 Airrelax.ca: OFXPODCAST

In this enlightening episode of the Stories to Create Podcast, Cornell Bunting engages in a stimulating conversation with Dr. Phyllis R. LeFlore-Calloway, J.D., the director of the Southwest Florida Enterprise Center (SWFEC). Mrs. Calloway reflects on her role as the former assistant director of the Fort Myers Community Redevelopment Agency (CRA), where she oversaw the day-to-day operations of the SWFEC.During the conversation, Mrs. Calloway sheds light on SWFEC's integral role as one of two divisions of the Community Redevelopment Agency. She highlights her collaborative efforts with Executive Director Michele Hylton-Terry to develop an incubator curriculum and programming that equips entrepreneurs for success in both "working in their business" and "working on their business."SWFEC serves as a light industrial business incubator, providing invaluable support to startups and early-stage businesses. Through a wide array of programs, workshops, and seminars, business owners receive education on a diverse range of subjects. Furthermore, the Center offers physical locations for businesses to operate from, complemented by technical assistance, all aimed at fostering the growth and long-term success of these enterprises. SWFEC is dedicated to assisting all types of business owners, whether they produce products or deliver services that cater to the ever-expanding market in Southwest Florida.Tune in to this engaging conversation as it weaves a unique narrative, shedding light on the remarkable work being done at SWFEC to nurture entrepreneurship and business growth in the region.  Support the showThank you for tuning in with EHAS CLUB - Stories to Create Podcast

Life sure has been different for both of us since Kelly and the kids landed in the US. Kelly talks about her experiences being in Ohio and living in the country. We also talk about of our Barnstormers date night, where we recreate some of our favorite Canada date night food and drink in the comfort of our own home.

Don't miss this sweet conversation with my friend Becky, "farmgirl paints," as we discuss her book, Seeing God in the Sweet Ordinary. I'm praying our conversation shows you how to "lift up your eyes," and see the presence of God in whatever circumstances you may find yourself. You are so loved. 

When the nights are long, sweaty, and miserable and you have to wake to a job that is physically demanding, it can mean difficult days.Amanda, (Mandy), Linney was tired of being tired. There was nothing on the market for her to sleep in that made her perimenopausal symptoms of night sweats and hot flushes more tolerable. She decided to do something about that.When there isn't anything out there that you are looking for, why not create it yourself? This is Mandy's story of how she created the product Kavu Clothing, which was nominated as Innovative Product of 2022, and featured in Living North Magazine in the UK.LINKS TO THIS EPISODE:Sponsor - Quintella Life Coach and Mentor Website: https://quintellalifecoachandmentor.com/Mandy's Website: kavuclothing.comDON'T FORGET... when at checkout for your website, use the coupon code FUN for your special listener discount.Mandy on Instagram: kavuclothingMandy's Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/menopausenights(It can also be found by just searching Kavu Clothing on FB)Join my Beautiful Second Act Membership! CLICK THE LINK HERE to join.Beautiful Second Act Facebook GroupBeautiful Second Act Instagram: beautiful_second_actThanks for listening. To support this show, please Subscribe if on Apple, or Follow from Spotify, or any other platform you listen from. Leaving a RATING, or a REVIEW would be much appreciated. It helps others to find the show.Much love,Patti

OFX EPISODE 82: FARMGIRL FITNESS BRINGS DEKA TO CANADA Brought to you by Duonamic. Farmgirl Fitness has become the first ever Canadian Deka affiliate. Owner Jessie Thomas shares with us how this all came to be.

Angela has been inspiring women and mothers for years to EMBRACE their style. While many Moms lose themselves in motherhood, Angela inspires all of us to reclaim our style and with it, our identity.Angela explains how your personal style can serve as an anchor to who you are and help you remain true to yourself while you manage laundry, diaper changes and dishes.By tuning into our unique style and bringing it into our wardrobe, home and motherhood, we not only remain true to ourselves, but we encourage those we love to express themselves.Thank you to our sponsors:Dry Farm WinesIf you enjoy a glass of wine but are also trying to be intentional with what you put into your body, look no further. Dry Farm Wines provides only the best, organic and biodynamic wine from all over the world. Their selections are beautiful and healthy. As a Mama's Roots listener, enjoy an extra bottle of wine for $0.01 with your first order by using this link: Dry Farm WinesFind Angela here:The Parisienne Farmgirl WebsiteThe Parisienne Farmgirl on YoutubeThe Parisienne Farmgirl InstagramHomemaker Chic PodcastFind Nicolette here:Nicolette's WebsiteNicolette's InstagramHave an idea for an episode? Feel free to shoot me an email at nicolette@mamasrootsareshowing.com

Let's hear from Blythe and Kaitrin, the girls of Winnebago! TikTok fame, interns, Dale as a boss, and DB bustin in the girls restroom!? Text "podcast" to (940)353-0890 DaleWear ➡️ https://dalebrisby.com/collections/new-styles

Kitchen renovations continue and Frances reminds us of how beautiful we become in the midst of soul renovation. Peek behind the curtains as Frances continues to share from her journal and her life about becoming a "Brand New Me".  Also, can you be a farm girl and musician all at the same time?   

Owner and founder of Farmgirl, Peter Adamo talks about their unique product range of ingredient-focused low carb, diabetic, and keto friendly products. Sharing his journey from the beginning stages of his business to now. Awesome story and a cool cat to have in the studio Watch the entire episode on our YouTube Channel - https://youtu.be/elV8avzVPh0

About this episode If you've been around The Startup Story for any length of time, then you probably know that many times I ask my founder guests something along the lines of "If we were doing a where are they now episode in 3 to 5-years, where would your brand be?" Well this episode is kind of like our first "where are they now episodes". It has only been a year, but I think we can all agree the last year felt like 5 years all rolled into one. I'm so excited to bring this update episode featuring Christina Stembel the founder of Farmgirl flowers. I am such a fan girl of Christina and it's because her story is truly one of resilience, grit, and excellence in execution. For those who might not know her story, she pitched more than 100 investors and every single one of them told her no. Yet she continues on, and has now built the business that is marching towards the $100 Million in revenue mark. It's an amazing story! But we're not going to go into her backstory in this episode. In this episode we talk about the last 12-months of her business, all the lessons she learned about herself, the team, the brand, and what adjustments she had to make in order to survive. In this episode, you'll hear: What her profit margin is like at her various revenue milestones. Christina tells us that she gave the company one year to increase profitability and get up to 10% net. She explains how February (before the pandemic hit) was extremely challenging as she and her husband got a divorce. Christina shares that luckily just before the pandemic she had just launched Ecuador and was able to transfer the orders to her South America team. She shares how she first thought the company wouldn't make it through to the pandemic and estimated that they would last eight weeks in any scenario. When she came to this conclusion this kicked in her fight-or-flight mentality and she knew she was going to fight her way through the pandemic. In 2020 she opened additional 2 distribution centers in Ecuador and Miami. With orders being moved to Ecuador she had to give a 2 day crash course to train the employees (who usually plant flowers) on how to make bouquets, all in spanish. She shares how she opened 4 fulfillment centers, where they trained the farm's workers how to ship the flowers for them. Since then they have opened 5 more. Christina shares how she keeps her head and heart straight despite the varying stress that she walks through. She shares how the shipping partners they used for Farmgirl Flowers used covid as an excuse to not honor their money back guarantee. This put her company in jeopardy. She shares how she started creating video to connect with the customers, as it was the most efficient and direct way to communicate. She also created weekly video updates and video tutorials of flower arranging to give back to her community. Christina shares how Farmgirl Flowers is not great at marketing but great at brand, which means she only spends 1% on marketing and PR. She shares how she is transparent to her community about everything that goes on behind the scenes. Christina shares how her team is over 70% women and she would like to get on site childcare. She shares the struggles of being a female founder, and how people don't extend the same level of respect to her as they do her male founder counterparts. Resources from this episode Secure your Q2 issue of Grindology: https://grindology.com/ ExpressVPN: Get 3 Months Free → https://www.expressvpn.com/startupstory Get Emails: https://app.getemails.com/referrals/newaccount?ref=R18HWW5 The Startup Story Inner Circle: https://www.thestartupstory.co/vip The Startup Story on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/thestartupstory The Startup Story is now on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/jamesmckinney The Startup Story on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thestartupstory Christina Stembel, Founder of Farmgirl Flowers: https://www.thestartupstory.co/episodes/christina-stembel-founder-of-farmgirl-flowers Farmgirl Flowers: https://farmgirlflowers.com/ Share the podcast The Startup Story community has been so incredible sharing our podcast with others, and we thank you! We do have more stories to tell and more people to reach. There are three ways you can help. First, the most powerful way you can support this podcast is by leaving a review on Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen to podcasts.

So often we see a huge business and immediately think that their success was easy or that they don’t have struggles, when in reality that couldn’t be farther from the truth. Today’s podcast guest, Christina Stembel, talks with me about her journey through entrepreneurship and going from zero to $100 million dollars...and what that really looks like behind-the- scenes. Christina is the founder of Farm Girl Flowers, an e-commerce flower shop that ships to the lower 48 United States. While Farm Girl Flowers has become a recognizable name and has achieved massive milestones, it hasn’t always been easy. Throughout the episode, Christina touches on: Starting a business in a field that wasn’t a lifelong passion The challenges of being a woman as an entrepreneur Starting a company with no investors and what that meant then and now Using her platform to stand up for her beliefs Going from zero to $100 million in 11 years Facing flack from competitors Christina opens up and is brutally honest about her walk through entrepreneurship - both highs and lows. To anyone with a dream of starting a business, or is in the trenches right now, this is a story that will touch and inspire you. Enjoy! Did you enjoy today’s episode? Leave us a rating and review on Apple Podcasts! _______________ Ways to work with Stacy: * FREE TRAINING: Watch our FREE “How To Generate Revenue In Your Business Everyday...Even When You’re Not Working” training here: https://stacytuschl.com/training * CONTENT MACHINE: Take one piece of content per week and turn it into daily micro-content. Get access here: https://stacytuschl.com/machine * MASTERMIND: Check out the 4 inevitable stages of what it takes to become a powerhouse and successfully have your business work for you. Watch the FREE training here: https://stacytuschl.com/insider _______________ And if you haven't heard, we've been selling more and more copies of my *new* book The Implementation Code everyday.  If you haven't gotten your free copy yet, go to www.implementationcode.co/freebook - and just pay the for shipping and handling and we will mail it out to you right away! If you want to try out monday.com with a 14 day free trial go to www.stacytuschl.com/monday I know you’ll love it as much as I do!  Let’s build systems together to help you make more time and more money doing what you love. Let's be more than podcast friends. To join the text messaging community just text PODCAST to (414) 240-1379 OR if you'd rather, click here (>> https://my.community.com/stacytuschl) and text PODCAST. Stacy Tuschl is a speaker, business coach, and the owner of The Academy of Performing Arts in Wisconsin. She is the author of the book “Is Your Business Worth Saving?” where she reveals proven strategies for pulling entrepreneurs out of a rut and launching them toward business success. –> Want to work with the Foot Traffic Team and skyrocket your business during a recession? Here is a quick overview of the Foot Traffic Formula program:  We are building out your marketing plan, systems, helping you increase your revenue so you can start to hire and remove some of the stress and pressure going on right now. You'll Get: A program of on-going strategy, systems, and support Weekly laser coaching sessions with me Weekly office hours and trainings with Team Foot Traffic to learn likes copywriting, paid IG and FB ads, funnel implementation and more Private on-boarding call to get you started on the right foot A Dedicated Community Manager that is in the FB group every weekday answering your questions A Dedicated Accountability Coach to work with every month for 25 minutes PRIVATELY. We want to help hold you accountable to hit your goals. Click here to learn more about the program. This is it! If you're ready, I can't wait to welcome you into the program.

Who is Kenzie Ashcraft? What has her journey as a small business owner looked like? We unpack all of that on this episode of the Cowgirl Confessions Podcast. I hope you enjoy getting to know Kenzie as much as I enjoy calling her my friend. Kenzie is a wife to her high school sweetheart and mom to two precious girls, Paisley and Scout. Some of her favorite things are team roping, a good playlist, and spending time hulled up in a cabin with a book. Kenzie's husband is a firefighter in their hometown also runs a custom hay operation with her Dad in the summers. Kenzie has also started a new project called Hayfield Meals to go along with the hay operation and has expanded her decorating gift to Interior Design. Growing up within a farming/ranching family, riding horses from the age of two, growing up in the arena and eventually going on to college rodeo for Oklahoma State, she has always loved the western industry. Kenzie's first “real” job was at a boutique when she was just 16 that birthed my love and appreciation for small mom + pop shops. Kenzie loves the heart and soul that goes into a family owned business. The community that is built from it. The first name customer basis, the friends made, and the uniqueness of items carried. She decided on the name Farm Girl because of her family's Farming/Ranching heritage but also from the book of Ruth when she is harvesting {farming} in the fields with Boaz. She was such a hard working woman who was noble and faithful. Qualities that I want to bestow and share with my customers. She was the OG Farm Girl. You can read more about Kenzie's  journey on her blog at farmgirlblogs.com & by listening to this episode.  ********************************************************************************************************************************************** WEBSITE: farmgirlblogs.com , farmgirlboutique.com  INSTAGRAM: @farmgirlada , @the.farmgirl , @farmgirlhomedesign , @farmgirlcattleco , @hayfieldmeals  FarmGirl branding, art & design by: @wapitisagedesign aka Talia Whatcott & owner of @littlecoyotes , www.wapitisagedesign.com/contact ************************************************************************************************************************************************ INSTAGRAM: @cowgirlconfessionspodcast EMAIL: cowgirlconfessionspodcast@gmail.com  Connect with your host:  INSTAGRAM: @dakotadawnjohnson  FACEBOOK: Dakota Dawn Johnson EMAIL: dakotadawnjohnson@gmail.com  ************************************************************************************************************************************************* Thank you for spending your time with me on the Cowgirl Confessions podcast. I am so glad yall stopped by- if you could take a moment to share this episode and tag us on social media- I'd be happier than a cowgirl in a sea of BOGO vintage turquoise. Subscribe to make sure you don't miss an episode. New episodes will be released bimonthly. Please leave us a review if you feel so led by going to I tunes.  Your feedback will really help us breath the idea of grabbing life by the horns with a COWGIRL STATE OF MIND into women across the globe, some that may have never even had the privilege to throw their leg over a horse but could most certainly use the cowgirl state of mind while navigating life. thanks again yall- until next time- keep pursuing your dreams with that All go & no Whoa mentality. Remember- You're writing a story that's worth saddling up for sister.

Bucks County Bytes welcomes you, Jennifer, from Farmgirl Coffee located in Kitnersville, PA. Home to so many farms and beautiful countryside and the most welcoming of communities that believe in supporting all small businesses located in Bucks County.When Jennifer and I first met, it is because I was told about this amazing coffee shop not far from home and that I should go visit...and that I did. When I walked into Farmgirl Coffee, I mentioned who I was and who introduced me...and Jennifer and Kayla were just overwhelmed and offered me coffee and such deliciousness from their shop...oh my! So good! The coffee and pastry were so good! This organic coffee is so wonderful I couldn't stop talking about it! Made my day so much better and the love and support from our local community just made me love Bucks County even more! Little did I know it would be weeks before they would be on the show due to all the snow, and all the farm problems that we are all so used to!So I finally present to you, Jennifer, our Farmgirl Coffee owner from our very own Kitnersville located right here in Bucks County.Subscribe and share and don't forget to leave a review for both Farmgirl Coffee and Bucks County Bytes!Farmgirl Coffee contact info -FacebookFarmgirl CoffeeInstagramFarmgirl CoffeePhone and email(484) 907-2048farmgirlcoffee@gmail.comBucks County BytesBucks County Bytes linksSupport the show (https://paypal.me/msexpresso?locale.x=en_US)

Oh, so he is like playing Bruce Willis but Bruce Willis ISN'T playing Joseph Gordon Levitt?  Hm.  That hardly seems fair. In this episode, a continuation of our EPIC time travel suite, the Busy Dads take a look at the only good movie that Rian Johnson has made.  Oh, wait.  This wasn't good either. Ok.  Well, we are talking about Looper. We take a “fly on the wall” approach to our listeners.  As such, some of what we discuss falls into the realm of SPOILERS.  Consider yourself warned. If you enjoyed BUSY DADS DO SCI-FI, please take the time to rate and review us on iTunes, Stitcher, Tune In, Spotify, Google Play or wherever you may find your podcasts.  You can follow us on Twitter at busydadsdoscifi or e-mail us at busydadsdoscifi@gmail.com Theme song by Tony Fernandez

About this episode So can change in a year. That's certainly been true for this podcast. Some opportunities were missed in the tumultuous year of 2020, but amazing things happened around here, too. For one, we've built up an extremely rich episode vault. I want to take some time to share some of those episodes again. This week we're bringing back the episode with Christina Stembel, founder of Farmgirl Flowers. You may recognize Christina from the national Capital One campaign, where she gets to quote the known slogan, "What's in your wallet?" And if you couldn't guess, Christina's story is unique on many levels, including her challenging upbringing. Christina was born in a small Indiana town where she was raised with the idea that young girls did not have the same future or potential as young boys. For most of her childhood, she felt like an outsider. She was a young girl with big dreams, and that was not the norm in her town. Despite any of the challenges Christina faced, her childhood was influential and helped her get to where she is today. She's often asked what's the secret sauce to her success? She immediately points back to the most important lesson of her life, and that is where we begin her story. This is Christina Stembel's startup story. In this episode, you'll hear: About how she grew up in a small town in Indiana with religiously conservative parents. And how she was continually asking questions and bucking against that system. Though entrepreneurs didn't surround her, she did learn the value of hard work. How and why she made a move to New York City after graduation. And later, moving to Chicago, taking classes at Columbia College, and working in a hotel. Christina shares how she eventually ended up in hotel management in San Francisco. And later, she details her exit from the hotel business. She describes her time working at Stanford University, first in their catering department, and then with Alumni Relations. Her time planning events for Stanford helped her recognize the amount of money being spent, and in her opinion wasted, on the decor. She was able to save the university money by buying flowers and making the arrangements herself, rather than buying finished pieces. Christina could see the gaps in the flower industry but knew she didn't want to be doing events. She researched the e-commerce side of flowers and felt there was something better she could be doing to improve it. That led to Farmgirl. Early Farmgirl had limited product options with excellent customer service and a minimal marketing budget. Christina shares some of the unique marketing she explored in the early days of her startup. Some of the frustrations are getting financing in Silicon Valley and her experiences. The growth of Farmgirl Flowers, including her desire for early regional growth, subsidizing shipping costs, and working on company culture. Why Christina believes anyone willing to work for it can be an entrepreneur. Resources from this episode Join Grindology: https://grindology.com/ ExpressVPN: Get 3 Months Free → ExpressVPN.com/StartupStory Get Emails: https://app.getemails.com/referrals/newaccount?ref=R18HWW5 The Startup Story Inner Circle: https://www.thestartupstory.co/vip The Startup Story on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/thestartupstory The Startup Story is now on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/jamesmckinney The Startup Story on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thestartupstory Farmgirl Flowers: https://farmgirlflowers.com/ Christina Stembel on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/christina-stembel/ Share the podcast The Startup Story community has been so incredible sharing our podcast with others, and we thank you! We do have more stories to tell and more people to reach. There are three ways you can help. First, the most powerful way you can support this podcast is by leaving a review on Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen to podcasts. Second, follow us on Facebook and Instagram, and be sure to share your favorite Startup Story episodes with your friends and on social media. Tag or mention @thestartupstory.co so we can give you a virtual high five and a thank you! Lastly, share the podcast on LinkedIn. The Startup Story podcast is for entrepreneurs. Don't underestimate the power of sharing on LinkedIn so other entrepreneurs can discover us. With your support, we hope to further our reach in encouraging and inspiring the founders of today and tomorrow. Thank you! EPISODE CREDITS If you like this podcast and are thinking of creating your own, consider talking to my producer, Danny Ozment. He helps thought leaders, influencers, executives, HR professionals, recruiters, lawyers, realtors, bloggers, and authors create, launch, and produce podcasts that grow their business and impact the world. Contact him today at https://emeraldcitypro.com/startupstory

Faced with 104 rejections, zero-funding, and the prospect of launching a new business during an economic downturn, Christina Stembel has not only grown her company Farmgirl Flowers to a $65m empire, she has also done it completely bootstrapped.  Stembel’s journey from bootstrap to business mogul is nothing short of inspiring. What began as $46k savings and a 2-year window to achieve her goal, her ecommerce flower business saw 5x growth in the first 2 years. As Stembel says,  “the fact that I was able to bootstrap without running out of money is the biggest accomplishment of my life” In this interview, listen in to discover how Stembel marketed and advertised her brand on a shoestring budget, the importance of word-of-mouth and how that helped her achieve her first million, and why she views FarmGirl Flowers as the workhorse among unicorns. Key Takeaways How Stembel started FarmGirl Flowers, and why she gave herself 2 years Marketing on a shoestring budget Complications she faced selling perishable products Why she views FarmGirl Flowers as a workhorse among unicorns The importance of product-quality, and why she believes that a good quality product will outsell any level of marketing The future of FarmGirl Flowers and reaching her first billion

About this episode This week's featured guest is Christina Stembel, founder of Farmgirl Flowers. You may recognize Christina from the national Capital One campaign, where she gets to quote the known slogan, "What's in your wallet?" And if you couldn't guess, Christina's story is unique on many levels, including her challenging upbringing. Christina was born in a small Indiana town where she was raised with the idea that young girls did not have the same future or potential as young boys. For most of her childhood, she felt like an outsider. She was a young girl with big dreams, and that was not the norm in her town. Despite any of the challenges Christina faced, her childhood was influential and helped her get to where she is today. She's often asked what's the secret sauce to her success? She immediately points back to the most important lesson of her life, and that is where we begin her story. This is Christina Stembel's startup story. In this episode, you'll hear. About how she grew up in a small town in Indiana with religiously conservative parents. And how she was continually asking questions and bucking against that system. Though entrepreneurs didn't surround her, she did learn the value of hard work. How and why she made a move to New York City after graduation. And later, moving to Chicago, taking classes at Columbia College, and working in a hotel. Christina shares how she eventually ended up in hotel management in San Francisco. And later, she details her exit from the hotel business. She describes her time working at Stanford University, first in their catering department, and then with Alumni Relations. Her time planning events for Stanford helped her recognize the amount of money being spent, and in her opinion wasted, on the decor. She was able to save the university money by buying flowers and making the arrangements herself, rather than buying finished pieces. Christina could see the gaps in the flower industry but knew she didn't want to be doing events. She researched the e-commerce side of flowers and felt there was something better she could be doing to improve it. That led to Farmgirl. Early Farmgirl had limited product options with excellent customer service and a minimal marketing budget. Christina shares some of the unique marketing she explored in the early days of her startup. Some of the frustrations are getting financing in Silicon Valley and her experiences. The growth of Farmgirl Flowers, including her desire for early regional growth, subsidizing shipping costs, and working on company culture. Why Christina believes anyone willing to work for it can be an entrepreneur. Resources from this episode Farmgirl Flowers: https://farmgirlflowers.com/ Christina Stembel on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/christina-stembel/ The Startup Story Inner Circle: https://www.thestartupstory.co/vip The Startup Story on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/thestartupstory The Startup Story is now on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/jamesmckinney The Startup Story on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thestartupstory Share the podcast The Startup Story community has been so incredible sharing our podcast with others, and we thank you! We do have more stories to tell and more people to reach. There are three ways you can help. First, the most powerful way you can support this podcast is by leaving a review on Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen to podcasts. Second, follow us on Facebook and Instagram, and be sure to share your favorite Startup Story episodes with your friends and on social media. Tag or mention @thestartupstory.co so we can give you a virtual high five and a thank you! Lastly, share the podcast on LinkedIn. The Startup Story podcast is for entrepreneurs. Don't underestimate the power of sharing on LinkedIn so other entrepreneurs can discover us. With your support, we hope to further our reach in encouraging and inspiring the founders of today and tomorrow. Thank you! EPISODE CREDITS If you like this podcast and are thinking of creating your own, consider talking to my producer, Danny Ozment. He helps thought leaders, influencers, executives, HR professionals, recruiters, lawyers, realtors, bloggers, and authors create, launch, and produce podcasts that grow their business and impact the world. Contact him today at https://emeraldcitypro.com/startupstory

Calm the Chaos/ Episode 3 Angela, The Parisienne Farmgirl talks about calming the chaos with essential oils   About  Angela is known on YouTube as The Parisienne Farmgirl where she lives with her husband and six children in Door County Wisconsin. When she is not homeschooling or renovating her 1780’s farm house you can find her sharing her love for cooking and curating a beautiful home on her YouTube and Instagram channel. Angela also manages her own doTerra essential oil business. She is a wealth of information and spends a great deal of her time educating and informing on the properties of essential oils.    What  You’ll Learn Common misconception with essential oils. Why doTerra and what makes it different from all the other oils. The education of essential oils to calm the chaos and how they can be used in our protocol and in the home. How does Angela calm the chaos in her own life Angela’s challenge to the listeners The Calm the Chaos Essential Oil package exclusively for our listeners!  USA Listeners use this link  International Listeners use this link Resources Angela on YouTube Angela on Instagram   Calm the Chaos Coaching  Don’t miss an episode, follow the podcast on Apple Podcast

Today’s story is about Farmgirl behind the farmgirlflowers. How she started with $49000 in savings and created the company having $23 Million in revenue. She believes however good your product is, if you do not market it well you cannot see an exponential increase in revenue. She shares a little hack which saved her in slump time. She is truly inspiring !Hear more stories on www.concurate.comIf you are facing any challenges in growing your business reach out to us on info@concurate.com

Over one hundreds ago, generations ago, a small village paid tribute to a powerful neighbor with a ceremony whose origins have been mostly lost to time and short, feeble human memory.Some years ago, a young farmgirl followed the voice of Windswept Tomyris, and several weeks ago, was reminded of her home.A few days ago, the remnants of the annual festival were resurrected in the small village and, following a brave ranger, the village was reminded of its neighbor.And yesterday, a disorganized and scattered person put these thoughts to a coffee-stained piece of paper.Welcome to Sword of Symphonies.Welcome to Sword of Symphonies.Play along with us! Download the manual for free here and let us know what you think on our website!Original music by Kathleen~!

Terces Engelhart is one of my biggest teachers.  She shares from her calling to make sure people don’t miss who they really are. Her love and acceptance is welcoming and her joy infectious. We explore her journey from sexual abuse and twenty years of an eating disorder sharing the pinnacle moment that shifted everything and led to her healing. She shares how the work of her healing led her and her now husband Matthew to creating a transformational board game and then founding Cafe Gratitude and Gracias Madre, plant based restaurants with the mission of "Love is Served".  We talk about the long journey of self-work and how at 70 years old she is still learning, growing and exploring. This episode and Terces is FULL of wisdom!You can find more detailed show notes and links to things we mention at https://yourjoyologist.com/podcast-terces-engelhart/ and from me in general at https://yourjoyologist.com and @yourjoyologist on Instagram/Twitter/FacebookYou can find Terces @terces on IG and at https://www.belovefarm.comSign up for my 31 day program I am connected to me at https://yourjoyologist.com/connected/Make sure to check out this week’s sponsor Encircled and shop their ethical, versatile, and sleek clothing at https://www.encircled.co and use code “claimitpodcast” for $20 off your order of $100+

Two hundred and twenty-four years ago, the Sage King of Forlatean began construction on a magnificent palace, one planned to rival even the great Golden Rose Pavilion. Before it could be completed, the Sage King fell ill and, surrounded by bad advice and greed, passed into death and obscurity, and the unfinished palace fell to two monarchs, three despots, and finally, the wilderness.Sixty-two years ago, it gained a new tenant, like so many of the old world’s abandoned places. A divine creature that could trace their roots back, in part, to that same Golden Rose Pavilion, this new tenant now, today, is watching as three heroes, a farmgirl queen, and her knight approach the ruins the Sage King labored over. Welcome to Sword of Symphonies.Play along with us! Download the manual for free here and let us know what you think on our website!Original music by Kathleen~!

Today we are joined by Christina Stembel, the founder and CEO of Farmgirl Flowers. Christina launched her company in 2010, to provide the best flowers and customer experience every single time. They carry only a select number of daily curated arrangements, rather than offering a large variety of bouquet options, so this means that their customers get to choose an arrangement style, rather than specific flowers. Listen in to find out how this direct-to-consumer bootstrap business is shaking up the online flower industry. Learn more about Farmgirl Flowers  Connect with Christina on LinkedIn Learn more about Payoneer’s Capital Advance

One hundred and fifty years ago, much of the world was destroyed. One hundred and seventy-five years ago, some of the world was destroyed. There is, at all times, something that is threatening to destroy everything. There is at all times a buried history, an endless series of cataclysms. And there is at all times something waiting. Something that has survived. Something that peers forward through history unblinking to watch what cataclysm swoops down on the present.Welcome to Sword of Symphonies.Play along with us! Download the manual for free here and let us know what you think on our website!Original music by Kathleen~!

Nobody remembers the name of the Old Capital now. It had a government, and it fought in the Last War, but the rest is lost. The people of the Interior clutch their memories tight, treasure their old borders even after losing them to Veldt. Rhimehold is fallen, and its corpse long buried. But the Old Capital was once a trading post. The barons and dukes of the Interior were once just individuals, the King of Rhimehold once a common warlord. And a teenage farmgirl has become the Queen of Acorn.Welcome to Sword of Symphonies.Play along with us! Download the manual for free here and let us know what you think on our website!Original music by Kathleen~!

Learn more about Farmgirl FlowersSupport the show and get on monthly brand advisory calls with Fabian____Full Transcript:F Geyrhalter: Welcome to the show, Christina.C Stembel: Thanks for having me. I'm so excited to be here, Fabian.F Geyrhalter: Oh likewise, likewise. So last night, after I put together my first draft of questions for this podcast with you. I usually end up diving deeper and do much more research once I get home. But I have to admit last night I had a really long day in LA traffic, and I just decided to pour myself a glass of wine and recline into the bathtub instead of doing more research. But then I grabbed the first magazine, which happens to be the November edition of Inc. And what greets me? A two-page ad for Capital One and you are the star in it, so.C Stembel: Can't get away from me, even when you tried.F Geyrhalter: It was hilarious. So I got both. I got more research time and I got relaxation time and that's how it works in life, right?C Stembel: Exactly, that's amazing. Best of both worlds.F Geyrhalter: I know. So how did you get into the business of selling flowers direct to consumer? How did that idea come up and when did you actually take the leap into full-on entrepreneurship?C Stembel: Yeah. It came up back in 2010. I should mention, though, before this idea I had probably 4,000 other ideas, none of them about flowers though. I like to kind of dispel the belief system that we tend to have, especially about women in creative businesses, that it must be their passion in life. I must have grown up frolicking in my grandmother's garden. Because that wasn't the case. I wanted to start a business, though, and I wanted it to be able to be big. I wanted to do something good. I wanted to solve a real problem, and I want to be able to actually change an industry, to actually innovate in a space and not just do something the same way that it's been done over and over again. I live in Silicon Valley, so I saw so many people doing really innovative, cool things. So that kind of opened up the floodgates of my brain, thinking, "I could do that in an industry, too." And so I came up with the idea for Farmgirl and for flowers in particular because I was working at Stanford University and one of the departments I oversaw did events for the law school, and I saw how much money we were spending on flowers. So first I just started researching the space from that perspective of why do flowers cost so much. And I very quickly went down several other rabbit holes, research when I found out the eCommerce space was really comprised of three companies that dominated. And it would bring me back to an actual problem I had in my life, which was when I would send my mom flowers in Indiana, I was forced to use one of those companies because she lived too far from a local florist. And I hated the whole process. So I was like, "Oh my gosh." I started researching that and I was like, "Oh, it looks like so many people hate that whole process." They don't think that the value prop is good for what they're spending. They're not getting a bouquet that represents them as a consumer. What they see isn't what they get anyway. When they order something, they think it's going to be this and it's that when it comes. It ends up costing $80 and it looks like it came from the grocery store for $10. And they weren't happy with the customer experience of, if they weren't happy then they had to go offshore to a customer service department somewhere that would try to rectify it but just send an equally lackluster bouquet again. So there was just a lot of similarities in what I was finding in researching that other people's experiences aligned with mine. And I thought, "Well this looks like it's an actual space in an industry that needs some change, and nobody's done anything since the mid nineties." Now, with nine years of experience under my belt, I kind of understand why... people probably had very similar ideas before me and didn't do them because perishability is really, really hard. But with my naiveté back then, I thought, "I'm the first one to think of something to transform this industry, and let me try it." So I laid out all the problems as I saw it and came up with a solution, which was the Farmgirl model where we limit the choice for consumers, and that allows us to reduce our waste by about 40% which allows us to use higher-quality stems that don't look like they came from the grocery store and create beautifully designed bouquets in house. So even if you're sending then to Bremen, Indiana or to Dubuque, Iowa, or somewhere really remote, you can get a designer quality bouquet shipped anywhere in the United States. So I looked at In-N-Out Burger as my inspiration because back in 2010, yeah. Nobody was doing less is more. Everybody was doing more is more back then. So they were the only one that I could find that was really limiting choice to consumers but they were doing it really well and they had created a really great brand. And so I thought, "I'm going to be the In-N-Out Burger for flowers." So that's what I did.F Geyrhalter: And it's interesting because when we chatted just a little bit before the podcast, you said that you liked that my podcast has this hyper focus instead of being everything for everyone. And I kind of created my entire consultancy around that too, that more focused, and I think it's fair to say better options, fewer options, is a holy grail. There's a lot in there because you can actually hyper focus on what you give your clients. But one thing that I think is extremely interesting about what you ended up doing is that everyone comes to think that the flower industry would be, no pun intended, but a green industry, right? But it is totally not the case. It's actually exactly the opposite, right? There are huge problems.C Stembel: Huge, I mean it's, like you said, I would have thought that, and I thought, "Well, they're flowers, and they decompose," and all that. But all of the things that go with the flowers are not compostable and many states they weren't even recyclable, like all of the plastic wrap and all those things, which is why we came up with alternatives to as much as we possibly could to make it greener and better for the environment. Everything we do is how we can make it better for the environment and better in all ways.F Geyrhalter: So it kind of is farm to table part two. So now it's not only the food on your table but it's also the flowers on your table.C Stembel: Absolutely, absolutely. And knowing the ripple effect of knowing... even the food, like the packaging the food comes in. It's things that I had never thought about before starting this and now I think about, I'm very, very focused on.F Geyrhalter: Let's dig a little deeper into that because you actually wrap your hand-tied bouquets with reused burlap coffee bags, right? From local roasters. Because they all have them. How did that idea take shape? And I also wonder, are there enough cool burlap bags as you start taking over the world?C Stembel: Yeah, we are actually running into that problem right now, so we're having to expand our thinking on that as well. We're on a hunt for more burlap sacks, so if you're a roaster in the area and hear this, please let me know. So it actually started with wanting to create a brand, actually. So I think this is... the burlap sacks were to be better for the environment. But also, the second part of that was when I was thinking about how I was going to present my product. Even when I was creating this flower company, I never wanted it to be just a flower company. I wanted to create a brand around it. I wanted it to look very different than everyone else. If someone saw one of our bouquets, I wanted them to know it was one of our bouquets without seeing our name on it. And so I put a lot of thinking into how can I do that? How can I create a Nike swoosh on our flowers, because flowers are flowers. So how do I do that? And so the packaging was where... my first foray into creating a brand was through our packaging. And the burlap was the start of that. I came up with 14 different ideas of ways to wrap our product, thinking of what looks the best and also what's best for the environment and then I just polled a few of my friends to see which ones they like the best. And it was almost unanimous, everyone like the burlap the best. I came up with that idea because of potato sacks, actually, not coffee bags. Because I'm from Indiana and we don't have coffee there. So I thought, "Potato sacks." But then when I researched California, where I'm at now, I was like, "Oh, nobody grows potatoes in California." But what we did have was coffee roasters, and so I thought, "Let me just reach out to them and see if I could buy their bags." And what was really fortunate that a few of them donated them to us to start and have continued. Some big ones, even Peet's Coffee donates their coffee bags to us now.F Geyrhalter: Oh, wow.C Stembel: Yeah, it's been great because we can also help them. They don't have to put them on a container to go back to South America. So it helps the environment even more, helps them cost wise, and we can upcycle them. People love to upcycle them again after we send it to them too and send us pictures of that. But it was really to create a brand and it worked. One of my first moments where I felt like the company was going to make it was about a year and a half in, and I had take a... it was still in my apartment, the first two years I did it in my apartment. And I was walking into my car with three bouquets because someone had called, 7:00 at night and asked for three bouquets. And you'll take whatever order, even if it's a midnight when you're starting out because you need the money.F Geyrhalter: Oh absolutely, exactly.C Stembel: And yeah. And I was walking to my car, which in San Francisco if you're familiar, you usually have to park like a mile away from your house, of course. So I'm walking, hoofing it to my car with these bouquets and three women were coming towards me on Van Ness Avenue in San Francisco, and one of them exclaimed, "Oh my gosh, is that Farmgirl Flowers?" Just by seeing the burlap wrap on the bouquets. And I was like, "It is." And she's like, "Oh, I love Farmgirl Flowers." And all three of the women start talking about how much they love Farmgirl flowers. And they knew it from the burlap wrap, that that's who-F Geyrhalter: That's amazing. Because you're like, "I'm the farm girl."C Stembel: It was. So I got in my car and I bawled eyes out. Yeah, yeah. I usually am just like, "Oh, I work there." Because then it makes it sound like it's way bigger than just me in my apartment. But you know...F Geyrhalter: That is such a... I mean that's such an amazing brand moment because it really, like you said, I mean, that's when you realized it actually is a brand now. It's not just a start-up, it's not just flowers you would never notice. And you didn't have to put a swoosh on it. You didn't have to actually spell out and put a logo on it. Which sometimes, being branded like that can also backfire. And so what's interesting to me is it sounds like, and I'm cheating because I read that, but it sounds like you totally bootstrapped your business. You actually were scraping by, running a business-C Stembel: Literally. Yup.F Geyrhalter: Literally. And so you had to invent. And so when you basically start to come up with these pieces of brand essence by yourself or maybe with a few friends around the table. When you had to decide, how do we wrap our flowers? And you said you had about 10 different ideas. And you decided on burlap because of it being a natural fit, no pun intended, for your brand. Did you at that point, and maybe even it's just in your head, did you have certain guiding principles for your brand where you said, "Everything we do with Farmgirl flowers has to be A, B, and C? Has to be natural, has to be sustainable, has to be... whatever." Did you have any of that?C Stembel: I think I did, but not in a very formal way. The one guiding light that I have for my company is that I want to create a company that I would want to buy from, sell to, and work at. Those three things. And so it's kind of like my golden rule for the company. And so any time I have a decision to make that I'm not sure about, I run it through that lens. And I'm like, "Well, would I want to work at a company that doesn't have benefits? No. So I need to get benefits for my team." Or, "Would I want to work at a company with this much waste? No." So all those things that makes it very easy for me to decide what to do from there with that lens. I think for when I was creating the brand around the product and still to this day, it really is just that we're creating a brand and products and an experience overall that all of us that work at Farmgirl would want to buy from and would want to get at that product. So it's very much a reflection of when I came up with the aesthetic, even, for what our bouquets would look like, I got all the flower books and I looked all over Google and looked at what all the fancy florists that people were writing about were doing. And I was like, "That's not reflective of me. I don't really like the styles of those bouquets." So I just created one that I would want to receive. And so it's a very informal but just... I still am very active in product development. Me and one person on our team create almost all of the products that you see on our site. And it's very much, what do I want to receive? And then when we don't know, we ask our customers now. So we just did a survey for when we started doing holiday products this summer, and we thought we would get a couple hundred responses from our customers. We were just like, "Hey, tell us what you think, what products did you like? What do you want us to bring back? What new things do you want us to create?" And we had thousands of responses. We were blown away because they weren't like, A, B, C, D. They were like fill in the blank and tell us. And people spent so much time telling us what they wanted and sending us pictures and things. It was amazing. We actually did not budget enough time to read them all because we were like, "Oh my gosh." So we all had to get... all the managers, everyone's taking a couple hundred a day. And that, I think, is a true reflection of... people buy from Farmgirl not just because they love the product, but they love the whole company around it and I feel so grateful for that. We did a survey last year to find out why people bought from us and the number one was just about tied, and it was they like our product and they like our company. Those two reasons. It wasn't because... and I was like, "What? Our company has to do with why you're buying from us?" They just really like our brand that we've created, which is exciting because that means that we can do other things besides flowers, too.F Geyrhalter: Right, right. Which you start doing. I see some hints of that on your website.C Stembel: Absolutely. Yup. Definitely.F Geyrhalter: So in the end, what do you think you actually ended up creating with your brand that is bigger than your offering?C Stembel: I think what we created, and hesitate to use this word because, you know what I'm going to say, because it's so overused, but we actually created an authentic brand. Authentic circa 2000, or 1995 before everybody started using it and not really knowing what it means. We are never going to be that polished company where it's really a couple white male founders sitting in an office in the financial district that's outsourcing everything to other people to make, to 3PLs. That's not us. We have so much heart into what we do, and we show the behind the scenes every day on our Instagram stories. We talk about our failures with our community. We fail all the time. I make bad decisions, we learn from it. Our most opened email was last New Year's Day where everybody was sending out their emails about, oh, what an amazing year, thank you for everything. And I sent an email that's like, "Wow, this last year sucked. It was so bad. All these things went wrong. And you know what? We're going to make this year so much better." And telling how we're going to make this year better. And people loved that. We got people writing in in droves to just thank us for just keeping it real. Because I think we just see shininess around us all the time now, and it's not real. So we like to show shiny moments when they're real and when they're happening. And we like to show all the unshiny moments so people know that they're not alone. This happens to us all. We had a peony debacle. We call it peony-ageddon here. This year at Mother's Day that almost floored us with hundreds of thousands of dollars of losses and stuff. We tell the stories so people know that we are truly approachable and we have a heart behind making their bouquets. And when people want to choose where to place their dollars and their support, they want to choose companies that they want to support with their dollars. And we're really fortunate that that tends to be us because we keep it real with them.F Geyrhalter: Absolutely. And that's going to happen more and more with the next generation. And it's a wonderful shift in the world that otherwise sees so many problems with transparency and authenticity. I think there's a huge shift right now, and it's great to see you be a part of that. And what I actually really enjoyed is somewhere in your many, many interviews, I read that you called mission-driven, you called it actually integrity-driven in a recent interview. And I really like that. I hadn't really heard integrity-driven being used as a phrase too often, but it feels much more approachable and human than mission-driven actually to me.C Stembel: Yeah. I think mission-driven, anybody can pick a mission, right? And I actually found that I was having problems as we were growing and scaling because we had a mission. We had a lot of missions when we started out that aren't our missions now. Because I found out I was wrong about things. One example of that is, when I started Farmgirl with a very clear goal of helping support American flower farms, and we only sourced domestic grown flowers. And I found that I was completely wrong. It was horrible- not even just from supply wasn't there, but a lot of the American farmers still to this day will not sell to me. And the only reason they won't sell to me that I can come up with is because I'm a woman. Because they sell to all my male counterparts, even younger businesses that are male-owned. But it's a good old boys network. And so I was fighting so hard and begging people to take my money, and it was horrible. Horrible. We were going to have to close down because I couldn't get enough supply. And even of the orders that they guaranteed us, we were getting 26% of our guaranteed orders. So I couldn't do it. I just couldn't do it. So I was wrong. And so saying I'm a mission-driven business and my mission is to support American flower farms and then to find out that that's a, not possible, two, not wanted, made me feel like I was failing in a big way. I don't need to be mission-driven on this one mission that anybody can pull out of a hat and say, this is our mission. I want to be integrity-driven. And every step of the way, I want to use really good integrity to make the best decision for our company and our consumers and our vendors and our environment, and all of the things I really care about.F Geyrhalter: So that's a fascinating example that you just gave and it's also mind blowing and it's also wrong in so many ways. How-C Stembel: Yeah. Amen.F Geyrhalter: Yeah, amen. So if this is the way that you decided to go, and obviously especially in the beginning in the first years of your business, I am sure that you very loudly talked about your mission, right? So that people say, "Yes, I want to support a female-founded company that supports only American farms." It just makes so much sense. And then suddenly you had to pivot and say, "Oh actually it ain't so." A, how was that being perceived and was that the beginning of the transparency and integrity-driven where you just say as it is. And B, where do you now source your flowers and how does that still fit in to your integrity-driven business?C Stembel: Yeah, that's a really good question. Yes. That was absolutely... it was the scariest moment of my life was when I hit send on the email where I sent a letter out to all of our customers and I put it on our social media to over a million people at that point, was really nerve-wracking. I was sitting in a hotel room in Las Vegas at a show when I had to send it out. And it was November 2016 when I realized that we were not going to make it through another Valentine's Day if I didn't change something, which is only three months away, right? So I had three months to completely change our supply chain sourcing model, which was hard. So I went down to South America, I had really great friends in the industry that connected me, when I would go to and say, "Tell me the most value-aligned farms that I can work with." And they gave me great names and I went and met with those farms and started sourcing internationally and sent that letter on January 25, 2017. And the fact that I can remember these dates when I have so much in my head shows how-F Geyrhalter: It's ingrained.C Stembel: Yes, it's ingrained in me. So January 25, 2017 was one of the scariest days of my life. Because you're right, we had gotten almost ten minutes on The Today Show talking about our local mission. We had New York Times. We had all of these amazing publications that had written stories on us based on this mission of supporting local. And to change that entire story was so scary.F Geyrhalter: Oh yeah, unbelievable. Yeah.C Stembel: Yeah. So I just decided after thinking about, how am I going to do this, and researching what other brands do and what other companies do when they need to make a huge pivot like this. And really didn't find a whole lot. So then I just thought, "Okay, what seems right to me is to be honest and transparent and just tell them the why." And I didn't tell them the full why because still at that point I had a lot of shame, which I'm embarrassed to even admit right now. That I thought the reason I couldn't make it work was somehow my fault a bit. And now I don't have any of that looking back on it. I have a lot more wisdom now to know, hey, you can't stop a train as one person if they don't want to stop. They're just going to run over you. So I told everybody, I sent out that letter, and then I waited with bated breath. And it was amazing. We got hundreds and hundreds of emails back from people saying, "thank you for taking the time," because it was obviously a very long letter because I don't do anything super short.F Geyrhalter: And that's a wrap for today.C Stembel: Totally. So I talk a lot. So I explained where cannabis has been legalized, we can't get enough flowers. And people don't want to sell to us and I've been told that I just need to slow down our growth in order to let farms keep up and that's just not a solution for us and all of these things and just shared that. And our amazing customers and fans, they were so supportive, and they were just so thankful that we told them the why [inaudible 00:22:49]. We didn't just pull the wool over their heads or start doing it. And that was so amazing to see and that I think that made me even double down, like you said, on the transparency and honesty with our consumers because for them to come along with us on this journey, they want to feel a part of it and that they can trust you. And if we're explaining why before we're making a major decision and that it's not like we're selling out to save a dollar. We're doing this because we need to in order to stay around. Then they were very understanding and amazing and so supportive and wonderful. So it was a great experience that could have been a horrible experience, but it worked out well. And now where we're sourcing is we're sourcing a lot more internationally with, like I mentioned, cannabis has really changed the landscape, especially in California, where 80% of the flowers are grown. People don't like to talk about that story but it's really real. And also I just have to say that the international- we have some really great domestic farms, a few really amazing domestic farms that we work with. And we will always work with them as long as they want to work with us and keep growing flowers. However, the international farms, what I have found is that they just treat us with the respect that we didn't get here as mostly females. And it's really refreshing to have farm partners that are values-aligned and they do amazing things for their teams. Amazing things. And also want to grow with us. And that I don't have to beg them to treat me with respect and take our money. And so I have no qualms because I think I also vote with my dollars just like our consumers do. And as a company, we still buy from some of the farms... one of them I had to threaten a gender discrimination lawsuit to get them to even sell to us. And I hate that I have to give them money. I need their flowers, but the fact that... if you have to threaten to sue somebody to get them to sell to you? And then you have to give them money? That's not voting with your dollar.F Geyrhalter: Unbelievable. Well, and actually, to interrupt you here for a second, I heard you say on CNN, nonetheless, that you feel it is a tremendous benefit being a female-founded company. So this is interesting in context of what you just told us. So something must have flipped around and even though you had to go through this horrible hardship, which, quite frankly, was threatening to your livelihood at that point. I mean, people who are not entrepreneurs, they might not understand why you say it was the worst day of your life because people say, "Well, it was was when you got cancer or when something horrible happened." No, this is about existence. This is existential fear, right? So you still feel like it's a tremendous benefit being a female-founded company, which I hope that is true and I love it because I had back-to-back female founders now for the last couple of episodes. And I think it is more and more the future, hopefully. But can you expand on that a little bit?C Stembel: Yeah. I think that there's certain things that I feel very... I feel that it is a tremendous asset in the flower space or in a creative space because I know what consumers want. So 80% of people that buy flowers are women buying for women, which is crazy to me because I'm the only larger scale female-founded eCommerce B2C flower company out there. They're all male-owned. And I think that's a huge asset to me because the things that they don't take inspiration from our company on is making the bouquets in house and really making the bouquets special. They're amazing at marketing and technology and things like that. But they're not fixing the real problem, which was ugly flowers, in my opinion. So I think as a woman who understands what women want, that's a huge asset. And the fact that my team is over 60% female run as well, we know what our consumers are going to want and that helps us. Where our male-owned competitors I don't think understand that they have to actually make beautiful flowers to get customers to come back at 62% rate like we have and to be able to spend less than $10 on customer acquisition cost because you don't need to keep re-acquiring customers because your last ones are always ticked off that they didn't get a good deal and they didn't get a great bouquet. So there's things like that that I think are a tremendous asset to being a woman in this space. I think almost everything else, it's harder. I just want to be really honest. It's harder. We've been bootstrapped the whole time, not because we didn't want to raise capital, but because I couldn't raise capital. I've gotten over 100 no's. I have spent 30% of my time for over three years trying to raise capital and finally got to the point where I'm like, I'm not even taking a meeting anymore. I'm so tired of spending so much of my time when I have less than a two percent chance of raising capital as a female.F Geyrhalter: And to be-C Stembel: Statistically speaking, you know?F Geyrhalter: Yeah, and to be fair, this was going in two ways against you. One, most likely because of all of the clout that goes against being a female founder for sure. But on the other hand because you also had that integrity where you said, "No, I'm not going to go for the bottom line. No, I'm not going to go A, B, C, D, E. And after that there's the door. Thank you for your time."C Stembel: Absolutely. My team are all full time with benefits, 401K. We're not going to do things just to improve the bottom line and make everybody independent contractors or... we're not going to do things like that. And so that definitely negatively impacts our bottom line, which is not what investors... because they're looking for a very quick return. We're also always going to think at the longer term plan. I make decisions that on this quarterly report would look horrible because it's going to help us next year or the year after. And so I'm not going to play this game of fudging your numbers just to look good for investors. I'm looking for the longterm plan to build a really viable, sustainable, longterm really great company that creates really good jobs, nontech jobs, as well. And that's not that attractive to investors that need a really quick turnaround with a 10x return, you know? So there's lots of reasons that we don't fit the model and the patterns of what they're looking for. But also as a female, un-pedigreed female. I don't have any college degree, I didn't work at any of the big tech start-ups before. So I also need to be really realistic about what my outcomes and options are. And it's just better to get my 30% time back and keep growing at 50-80% growth year over year like we are every year and keep doing that by investing our profits back into the company, so.F Geyrhalter: And I think it is the right thing and the only thing to do today. And I gave a keynote last week in Vegas and it was a group of healthcare staffing CEOs. And I basically told them what you just preached, right? That there's a new way of doing business, and it's about transparency and it's about solidarity, etc. etc. And afterwards there was a big Q&A and one person said, "This is all fine and good and you're talking about a lot of start-ups that do that, but how could mid-sized companies start to do some of that? How can we suddenly turn into a transparent company? And I think it was a really interesting question, right? Because if you from the ground up create a company that has that at its roots, it's so much easier. Obviously Fortune 500s, good luck. But the small ones, the small to mid-sized companies that say, "Hey, I believe in what you say and I would like to do that, but how can I do that?" What would your thoughts be? How could a company that is not built on those values, how could they slower start to inject those and actually make them actionable? Putting you on the spot totally here, because you know what? I was put on the spot?C Stembel: That's a really good- no, that's a great question. No, you totally, no...F Geyrhalter: Karma, I forward it on.C Stembel: And good job to the person that asked that question because I think it's a great question. I mean, I've always said that there's not may moats that we have here at Farmgirl. Our competitors all order our bouquets, reverse engineer... they can do whatever they want and they can see all of our packaging that creates this amazing brand and unboxing experience and they can replicate it. And they all do. But the thing that they can't replicate is the heart that we put behind it, and that really shows. And so that's a great question because I've said that the moat that we have is that it's really hard to make a pair of low-riders into Mom jeans. Once you're a thing, it's really hard, especially if you have people that have been there a long time that this is the way they do things. I used to work at Stanford University before this, and it was basically a government job is what it felt like where just people had been there forever doing the same thing over and over and over again. And one of the negative responses I got from a superior, one of the bad feedback I got for my performance was that I forged ahead too quickly and didn't wait for everybody to catch up. And that was a negative on my performance review. And I looked at her-F Geyrhalter: Congratulations on your negative.C Stembel: Thank you. That's what I told her, I was like, "That's the nicest thing anybody's ever told me." Which is not the response she wanted. So I think it's really challenging, especially if people have been there forever. The only thing I can think on the spot that I would probably try if I had that situation where I was going into a medium-sized company that wanted to be like a Farmgirl, let's say. I'm just going to do it in the flower terms because that's where I'm at. But they'd already been doing this for 20, 30, 40 whatever years the way they had been doing it, is I would probably have to create a whole new department with new people to help influence change instead of dictate change. Because otherwise you're going to blow up your whole culture, right? And so it would have to be a slower process, which I do not do well with. Actually my team, the people that come here that need to take a long time to analyze and overanalyze everything don't work out here very well because I'm usually like, "We're going to try this and we're starting it in two months." A whole new process for... we did our whole supply chain in three months, we changed.F Geyrhalter: You have to, yeahC Stembel: Yeah. You have to move so fast here. But at big companies that have already been, or medium-sized companies that have already been around for a long time, I don't think you can move that fast without really disrupting your culture, unless you need to disrupt your culture and then maybe you want to.F Geyrhalter: Well, and I think it might not even disrupt the culture. It might just positively color the culture in a different way. I think that the idea of maybe even starting with operations and slowly adjust operations to do something better and then have it bubble up to the top so then you can talk about the story. Because everyone just want to talk about the story, right?C Stembel: Well and talking about the story if it doesn't actually... that's I think where a lot of the big companies... that's great point because where I see that they get called out on their fake authenticity a lot is because they bring in this marketing team or an agency, right? To tell this really cool, hip, new story. But it's not actually what they're doing.F Geyrhalter: Exactly.C Stembel: So you're right. Starting with operations and actually changing how they're doing things, and then tell the story afterwards so it is truly authentic and not just that they're trying to be cool.F Geyrhalter: Yeah. See? Together we can do this answer really well.C Stembel: Yeah, it's great. Totally.F Geyrhalter: As we're slowly coming down to the end, one question I really like to ask every entrepreneur, what is one word that can describe your brand? If you have to put your entire brand into one word, I call it your brand DNA. How could you sum it up in a word?C Stembel: One word would be heart, definitely. And I think it's on so many different levels. So everything we do, we do with heart. We say that all the time at Farmgirl. We're never going to do the easy wrong. We're always going to do the hard right. And we're always going to make sure that everything we do, we're putting our whole heart into. And that's what I think customers relate to. And I know that from their feedback to me. Anytime I'm ... I did a speaking things this weekend, and the people that came up to me afterwards were talking about their experiences with Farmgirl. And this happens everywhere I go, if I'm in a crowd of females anyway, not men. But if I'm in a crowd of females, everyone comes up and tells me their personal experience they had with my company and my brand. And it has to do with number one, we're really fortunate that we're celebrating people's life moments. Really important moments in their life, where they be really amazing and wonderful or really sad, too. So we already have that. But then in addition to that, we have the whole experience of when you receive a Farmgirl bouquet, it's not just the flowers, it's the whole packaging, it's all the collateral cards as we put in extra. We put a little enamel pin that has a story with it, usually about my life. We have one that's a grit pin or a be a work horse in a sea of unicorns, that's also another one that people love.F Geyrhalter: And a feminist pin too, right?C Stembel: Yeah, feminist. We have take the bull by the horns. We have all ones that have a personal story of when you're having a hard day put this on, it's going to give you strength. This is about remembering to do the hard things even though they're not the fun things. Things like that.F Geyrhalter: So good.C Stembel: So we do these... it's a definite holistic story when you get your Farmgirl bouquet. And they tell me every single feeling they had when they opened every single part of the collateral. And they tell me about how the flowers made them feel and feel loved and special. And I think that that heart that we put into it shows and kind of transfers to the person who gets it. And I think that's really special that we get to do that. We get to show people that they're loved and that they're special and make them feel even more so in what we bring to them.F Geyrhalter: The heart that we put into it shows. That's your perfect Valentine's Day message.C Stembel: Yeah, totally. We're shooting that this week so I'm going to go tell them after this.F Geyrhalter: That's right. So after everything you have self-taught yourself about branding, and obviously it works and it comes from within, it's intrinsic. And of course now you've got all kinds of data and there's so much more to it, I'm sure, at this scale that you're working at today. But what does branding mean to you today?C Stembel: We don't have all the fancy tools that all the big companies have, and I don't think I want them, honestly a little bit. Because I like just being able to feel things. I like being able to think about things and ask our customers. I don't ever want to get to the point where I'm just taking industry data and being like, "Well, everyone's saying this is what consumers are wanting now," and stuff. I want to be able to keep that connection with our customers that then influence who we become as a brand, too. And I think that branding to me, number one it's my favorite thing about what I do. Absolute favorite thing about what I do is the brand that we get to create because I feel like it's kind of like a love letter a little bit. And we get to show our emotions and our heart on our sleeve to people and I think that that's really amazing and I love doing that. So it's my favorite part. I also think it's probably the most important thing about what we do. I don't ever want to create a company that doesn't have that, that doesn't have heart. And I use this a lot, but I never wanted to create a company that sold toilet paper. Not that there's anything wrong with it, I just didn't like-F Geyrhalter: Oh, you never know. There could be toilet paper sold with heart.C Stembel: It could be, it could be. I've seen some recent ones, I'm like, "Wow, that's a good idea with toilet paper." But I just wanted something that I personally could create a brand around and create love around and connect with people about. And so I think that that's what brand is. It's really showing your heart and showing on your sleeve a bit and connecting with your customers.F Geyrhalter: That's beautiful. It's so true. It's so true, especially with today's companies. I do have one last question because I'm sure everyone listening would have that same question. What's your PR secret? You have been on CNN, you have been on Hitting The Mark, okay maybe that not, but still, you've been Fast Company, Vanity Fair, Vogue, and anything in between. Was it hiring the perfect PR agency or just hustling your way in by using your unique story? I mean, both are very difficult.C Stembel: Yeah. I think it's that we have a good story and we photograph really well because flowers photograph really well, which is really lucky for that. But it is having a great PR agency, too. We have a phenomenal one in New York, Jennifer Bett Communications, that I can't say enough about. And they're wonderful and they work with us on what we want our story to be out there and who we want to be telling it. And so they've been wonderful to work with. So it's definitely not all... people think that we're just lucky and it's free and everything but we put a lot into it too.F Geyrhalter: Oh I'm sure.C Stembel: Yeah.F Geyrhalter: And thank you for sharing that. That was great.C Stembel: Of course.F Geyrhalter: Listeners-C Stembel: It is money, so.F Geyrhalter: That too, of course. Exactly, exactly. Listeners who fell in love with your brand just now, where can they get some Farmgirl flowers for the holidays?C Stembel: Why thank you for asking, that's a great question.F Geyrhalter: Well you didn't see that coming.C Stembel: Totally. Farmgirlflowers.com, on our website. And then we also ask that you just follow along with our journey on Instagram and Facebook too, if you want to see more behind the scenes every day. We like to show you how we're making each bouquet and fun things about our company there as well.F Geyrhalter: And I think you have 133,000 flowers, is that correct?C Stembel: I think we're at-F Geyrhalter: Or is it 311 now? One or the other.C Stembel: Yeah, I think we're three something-F Geyrhalter: There you go.C Stembel: On Instagram. And probably about the same on Facebook. I think overall, it's a little over a million between all the channels.F Geyrhalter: That's awesome. That's really, really amazing. Congratulations on everything. I'm so thrilled that you were able to share your insights and your story with us on the show. I know you have a jam-packed schedule, so we really appreciate your time.C Stembel: No problem, thanks for having me. I really enjoy talking about this. I don't often get to talk about brand, so this is really refreshing and wonderful.F Geyrhalter: Excellent, thank you Christina.C Stembel: Awesome, thank you Fabian.

When people depend on nature for their living, they learn its rhythms and its pace. They listen as the world breathes in, and they feel it as the world breathes out, keeping time with their dance partner. Every day is a step, a beat, a change, and as nature leads the dance into winter, people add their own turns and flourishes. It's time for the festival! Welcome to Sword of Symphonies.Play along with us! Download the manual for free here and let us know what you think on our website!Original music by Kathleen~!

Hundreds of years ago, people lived together. Apart, yes, apart enough to fight their wars, but together, sheltering in their nations and cities. They flew standards and pressed coins and gave what they could to communities they called States, Republics, Kingdoms, and the like.After the Last War, it crumbled to dust. But dust, given time, can become fertile soil, and something new can grow.Welcome to Sword of Symphonies.Play along with us! Download the manual for free here and let us know what you think on our website!Original music by Kathleen~!

Colleen and Carolyn sit down with Christina Stembel, CEO and Founder of Farmgirl Flowers in their San Francisco Flower Mart Headquarters to discuss the history of Farmgirl, the international cut  flower trade, and being a female business owner in a traditionally male dominated market. 

Whether you're looking to brush up on old homesteading skills or delve into a completely new adventure on your homestead, modern technology gives us so many options for how to increase our homesteading knowledge. In fact, I sometimes think we have so much homesteading information right at our finger tips that we forget how lucky we are! Some of you may be wondering where do I myself go when I need homesteading information? What resources are the ones that I use? Well. Let me tell ya. (Don't want to read all the words? This blog post is also a podcast—just press the triangle play button on the little black bar at the top of this post!) See, I didn't want this to just be a list of random links that you can easily find by googling homestead information all by yourself. Instead, this is a list of my favorite homesteading channels, podcasts, and blogs, along with a few that were suggested to me -- and I will differentiate between the two so you know what I actually listen to/watch/read and which are resources I'm just discovering myself. But wait, there's more! Instead of giving you a general link to the home page for each of these suggestions, I've chosen a specific video, episode, or post that I think is especially worth checking out. You're welcome. Learn Homesteading Skills on Blogs My go-to method for researching and learning homesteading skills is and probably always will be blogs. Maybe it's because I'm a writer. Maybe it's because I read fast. Maybe it's because blogging is pretty well-established as an information source, and there are some amazingly helpful bloggers out there! Flip Flop Barnyard Jenna is a smart and strong homesteading wife and mama who just keeps treking along on her homestead journey in the face of much adversity. On her site you can learn about many things, such as raising pigs, homemade udder balm, or how to make a rag quilt. The 104 Homestead The purpose of Jess's blog The 104 Homestead is to teach people how to homestead where they live, whether it's an itty-bitty city lot, or a big piece of land in the middle of the woods. Jess has taught me many things—like how to make homemade Fire Cider, and the dang easiest way to peel tomatoes for processing. And if you've ever wanted to know how to correctly clip a chicken's wings, Jess can show you how to do that, too. Timber Creek Farm At Timber Creek Farm, Janet raises vegetables for their table, and raises animals for fiber, eggs, meat and companionship! Wasting less and being more self sufficient is her ongoing goal. Janet has a wealth of experience and from it has come lots of informative articles like When Can Chicks Go Outside?, Free Range Ducks Pros and Cons, Dyeing Wool With Natural Plant Dyes, and How to Freeze Eggs (for later use!). A Farm Girl in the Making Once up a time, there was a husband and wife who decided that maybe one day they would live a life outside of suburban America. It's a good thing they did, because from it came Ann's blog, A Farmgirl in The Making. I've frequented Ann's blog and I've learned a lot—from raising turkeys on the homestead to how to build a DIY boot rack. Ann writes about lots of stuff—from gardening to canning, as well as raising chickens, ducks & goats. Check out her site and see what you can learn! Grow Forage Cook Ferment Colleen writes about a great many things—foraging, gardening, cooking from scratch, and permaculture—but the posts of hers that I am forever grateful for are How to Make a Gallon of Mead and 15 Easy Mead Recipes for Beginners. Learn Homesteading Skills on Podcasts A very close second for learning homesteading skills is podcasts. What I love about podcasts is that I can stick my earbuds in while I'm kneading bread, cleaning, doing chores around the farm, or any number of things—and I can be learning something at the same time. Listening to podcasts seems to be a great multi-tasking tool—it can also keep you entertained when you drive to work!

The Farmgirl and the Kitsune by Patrick Hurley.  Narrated by J.S. Arquin.  Featuring an afterword by Patrick Hurley.  #Fantasy #Ghosts #Fiction #Japanese #Folktales   In a land far away, where dragon sages watch the stars and turtle gods rule the rivers, there was a girl named Ishiko, the only child of a prosperous farmer.  She was small and quick, taking after her father, and smart and stubborn, taking after her mother.   Patrick Hurley worked as an editor for The Great Books Foundation in Chicago for ten years and then as an editorial project manager for Becker & Meyer Books in Seattle.  Patrick has had short fiction professionally published in dozens of markets, including Galaxy's Edge, Cosmic Roots & Eldritch Shores, Flame Tree Publishing's Murder Mayhem Anthology, Hy Bender's forthcoming Ghosts on Drugs Anthology, Abyss & Apex, Penumbra, and The Drabblecast.  IN 2017, Patrick attended the Taos Toolbox Writer's Workshop, taught by Nancy Kress and Walter Jon Williams.  He is a member of SFWA and Codex.   Please help support The Overcast.  Become a Patron Today! Subscribe on iTunes or Stitcher so you never miss an episode.  While you're there, don't forget to leave a review!      

BROUGHT TO YOU BY THE CONTRACT SHOP The Contract Shop specializes in attorney-prepared and peer-reviewed contract templates for freelancers, entrepreneurs, calligraphers, wedding pros, online course creators … pretty much all of you! Go to the link below + use code TRFE20 for 20% off. Check it out: www.therealfemaleentrepreneur.com/tcs *thank you in advance!! This is an affiliate link, So, when you purchase something using this link, you're directly supporting the podcast!   WHAT'S IN THIS EPISODE? Stoppppp in the name of badass women entrepreneurs, and push the pause button on whatever it was you were doing. Love, if you somehow stumbled upon this blog post or the description for this episode, it wasn't coincidence. IT WAS FATE!! And while I believe every woman who dreams of starting a business or has already started one should listen to this conversation, we can at least start with you. You were made for big things. Just like Christina Stembel. So, whether you have a college degree or not (she doesn't) or whether you come from an entrepreneurial background or not (she didn't) or whether everyone around you believes you're going to do big things or not (she didn't have this either), hear me now: you can build a multi-million dollar business and do incredible things. Because she did. Mmkay. No, go hit play right this very minute and dive in, my love. Want a sneak peek? We talk about: How being picked on in high school shaped Christina into who she is today Why Christina always knew she wanted Farmgirl Flowers to be a billion dollar business Starting the company in her 100 square foot dining room in her one-bedroom apartment How In and Out Burger was the inspiration behind Farmgirl Flowers Her philosophy: build a company you would want to buy from, sell to, and work at   WHO IS CHRISTINA STEMBEL? Christina always knew she wanted to start a business that would utilize her creativity, solve a real problem, and having the potential to scale big. She dreamed up the idea for Farmgirl Flowers in 2010, quit her job at Stanford University, and launched from her dining room in San Francisco, which housed the company (and her very understanding fiancé!) for 2 years. She's built Farmgirl from less than $50K in self funding into an 75+ person company generating $15M+ in annual revenue. She's not stopping there though – she plans to grow Farmgirl's annual revenue while creating a business you'd want to buy from, sell to, and work for -- because she believes it's just the right thing to do.   LINKS FROM THIS EPISODE: ”Grit” by Angela Duckworth www.farmgirlflowers.com Farmgirl Flowers on Instagram and Facebook Sign up for Lauren's Soul Notes

The great thing about social media is that it gives us an opportunity to talk. Which, oddly enough, also happens to be the trouble with social media. Friends, let's talk about how a farm(ish) girl approaches social media etiquette. (Don't want to read all the words? This blog post is also a podcast—just press the triangle play button on the little black bar at the top of this post!) It's a big wide world out there with lots of things going on. Occasionally my social media newsfeeds blow up with a virtual fist fight that spreads like wildfire. It's at that point it's time to give some farmish advice about how to behave on social media. Farmgirl social media etiquette #1: If you wouldn't say it to someone at a fried chicken dinner, don't say it online: I haven't quite figured out why yet, but folks sometimes forget that the power of their words doesn't diminish because they are typed instead of spoken to someone's face. Social media has a sometimes magical (and sometimes downright stupid) way of making people braver than they would be if forced to say the same thing to a person in real life conversation. I like to just imagine that I'm sitting at a big chicken dinner with y'all, and I think it could be helpful if everyone used this imagery. If you wouldn't say it to someone who was sitting across from you at the table...maybe don't type it out on social media. M'kay? Farmgirl social media etiquette #2: Let's be honest—we really aren't okay with people disagreeing with our point of view: As a kid, I used to hear people say there are two things we don't discuss at the table: religion and politics. There's a reason for that—they are two topics that people have strong opinions on, and attach big parts of themselves to. Social media didn't catch on to that rule though; there's a current notion that it's everyone's right to discuss everything all the time, and social media provides the perfect platform to do so. I've talked to the animals in the barn about this and I've decided that as much as we'd like to say that it's fine and dandy for all of us to have differing opinions in the big land of (as the kids say now) 'Merica and beyond, I have to call bluff on a bug chunk of the population. If folks really were okay with people having differing opinions, they'd let whatever the current topic of argument is die down. Mary thinks this way, Susan thinks this way, Joel thinks this way. Great. I've got to go weed the garden and clean the pig barn. Let's move on. Farmgirl social media etiquette #3: Some people like fishing. Don't take the bait: I live in Minnesota, land of a bazillion lakes, and I know a thing or two about fishing. The fish that end up in trouble are the ones who take the bait. If we can get real for a second, some people on social media are baiting others into arguments. I know that post looks innocent (much like that Gulp bait I'm using to hook a fish), but it's deadly. Bite the bait and you'll get hooked into an argument. Sure, you're not going to end up as dinner on someone's plate (like my fish), but you will get angry, stressed out, say things you don't mean, and possibly ruin friendships. Seriously. Spit out the bait. Farmgirl social media etiquette #4: Farmish folk are humble. Stop assuming the post is for/about you: I understand there are people out there who do vague posts (see above point about "baiting") but sometimes you're just reading it wrong. People have asked me, "What do you think this post is about? Do you think she's talking about me? Do you think she's insinuating ____? Do you think he means _____?" He might. Or he might not. You could ask him (the person who wrote it) instead of me (the clueless one). Or you could realize that if it doesn't specifically mention you, it's actually not about you. I know. Mind blown. Farmgirl social media etiquette #5: Tone is important...and almost always gets screwed up.

In episode 89, Kestrel welcomes Christina Stembel, the founder of Farmgirl Flowers, to the show. An online floral shop that is dedicated to creating good jobs, Farmgirl Flowers is also focused on maintaining a sustainable supply chain, and minimizing waste in the floral industry. "INSTEAD OF HAVING 40-60% WASTE OF FLOWERS, WE HAVE LESS THAN 1% WASTE." -CHRISTINA, FOUNDER OF FARMGIRL FLOWERS Throughout this episode, Kestrel and Christina chat about the complicated supply chain behind the floral industry, and the impact it has on farmers, and the environment - especially when it comes to waste. The below thoughts, ideas + organizations were brought up in this chat: 40% of cut flowers are thrown away in the U.S. because the shops can't sell them before they die. Flower shops must up-charge their bouquets in order to compensate for the flowers that are expected to be wasted. Ritual Roasters, first place Christina sourced burlap coffee bags from for their flower wraps. Christina took inspiration from In-N-Out Burger, because they were doing one thing really well; when she launched Farmgirl Flowers, the "less is more" trend hadn't taken off yet. _________________________________________________________________________ This week's Conscious Chatter episode is brought to you by: Soluna Collective, an eco and ethical design company that makes products for your home. As a company, they respect the environment and the people living in it. INTERESTED IN CHECKING IT OUT? Use promo code CONSCIOUSCHATTER for an exclusive 15% discount off of your Soluna Collective order!

It turns out that at least 80% of cut flowers sold in the US are shipped from overseas. Christina Stembel, the founder of Farmgirl Flowers thinks the flower industry could use a re-fresh.

Today I'm talking to Shannan Martin. Shannon is a wife and mom of 4 who writes about Life, Adoption, Faith, and Home Decorating on her website, flowerpatchfarmgirl.com. In this interview we talk about what it looks like to sell your dream home and move to a neighborhood which is, as she puts it, on the wrong side of the tracks. Shannan continuously looks for ways to build community with her neighbors.  How can we incorporate that into our own lives. What practical needs can we meet every day to ease the burdens of others and show them the love of Jesus? We'll get into all of that. Shannon and I also talk about the day a major decorating magazine photographed her kitchen, and later I find out what tv shows she's currently binging on. You know…the really deep stuff. Shannon is adorable and you're going to love her, so let's get started.

DANA SLATKIN is a Culinary Institute of America-trained chef, cookbook author, food blogger and cooking class instructor in Los Angeles. She trained in France with Michelin Three-Star chefs Georges Blanc and Michel Guèrard and with renowned patissier Pierre Hermé at Fauchon. After cooking in New York City at Bouley, Dana moved to Los Angeles to become General Manager at L’Orangerie, one of the city’s most highly regarded formal restaurants. In 1994, seeing a need to engage her local community, she launched the Beverly Hills Farmers Market, which became the name and inspiration for her own line of award-winning food products, sold to airlines and supermarkets for a decade. Dana’s first cookbook, Summertime Anytime: Recipes From Shutters On The Beach, was published in 2008 by Clarkson Potter. Dana’s appearances include The Today Show, ABC News, Extra!, Martha Stewart Radio, Maria Shriver’s Women’s Conference in Long Beach, UCLA Festival of Books, and NAPTE. In addition to writing for The Huffington Post, Dana has been featured in Food + Wine Magazine, C Magazine, House & Garden, Town + Country, and many other publications. Dana has been an online spokeschef for Crisco, Smuckers, Little Black Dress Vodka, Gardein and 360 Cookware. As the Beverly Hills Farmgirl, Dana teaches a popular series of cooking classes in her home, runs a pop-up shop and online store, and writes a weekly blog, 90210farmgirl.com. She is currently at work on a food-related television show. Being hailed as “Sex and the City for Food,” The Food Heals Podcast brings together experts in the field of nutrition, health and healing to teach you the best-kept natural secrets to being a hotter, healthier, happier YOU!   The Food Heals Podcast is hosted by Allison Melody and Suzy Hardy – two self-proclaimed natural chicks who will rock your world and change your beliefs about health! This sexy, savvy duo provides eco-friendly advice on a variety of issues including the healing power of nutrition, living authentically, turning your passion into your career, choosing the best natural health and beauty products, the benefits of a plant-based diet and so much more!   Find out how to win a swag bag full of our favorite organic, vegan health and beauty products including luscious face lotion, wrinkle-reducing clay mask, refreshing essential oil spritzer, delicious deodorant, detox supplements and more by subscribing to our show!   Upcoming & past guests include John Salley, Sophie Uliano, Kimberly Van Der Beek, Joe Cross, Kerri Kasem and MORE! Make sure to subscribe so you don’t miss out on any of these amazing episodes!  

Disclaimer:  The post you are seeing is “under construction”.  ITunes is approving it and then you can find it there… for now… it’s here.  Pour a “mom beverage” and put your tired feet up… it’s Mamas After Hours. Mama’s After Hours So this is it. The bras are off. The wine is poured. And most […]