Podcasts about farmgirl flowers

 Watch Carol and Tim LIVE every day on YouTube: http://bit.ly/3vTiACF. Bloomberg News Equity Capital Markets Reporter Amy Or and Bloomberg Intelligence Global Autos Analyst Steve Man discuss the first day of trading for Zeekr Intelligent Technology Holding, the high-end electric car brand, after an expanded initial public offering that's the biggest US listing by a China-based company since 2021. Ben Harburg, Founder and Portfolio Manager at Core Values Alpha, shares his thoughts on investing in China through an American lens. Tim Sullivan, CEO of the New Jersey Economic Development Authority, talks about initiatives designed to drive economic growth in the Garden State. Christina Stembel, Founder of Farmgirl Flowers, discusses the floral industry ahead of Mother's Day. And we Drive to the Close with Alan Zafran, Co-CEO at IEQ Capital. Hosts: Carol Massar and Tim Stenovec. Producer: Paul Brennan. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Watch Carol and Tim LIVE every day on YouTube: http://bit.ly/3vTiACF. Bloomberg Intelligence Senior Airlines Analyst George Ferguson and Bloomberg News Projects and Investigations Reporter Peter Robison break down the FFA testimony before the House on Boeing's blowout. Christina Stembel, Founder of Farmgirl Flowers, discusses the impact of inflation on the floral industry this Valentine's Day. Ivan Feinseth, Senior Partner and Chief Investment Officer at Tigress Financial Partners, shares his thoughts on Ford earnings. And we Drive to the Close with Liz Young, Head of Investment Strategy at SoFi. Hosts: Carol Massar and Tim Stenovec. Producer: Paul Brennan. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Watch Carol and Tim LIVE every day on YouTube: http://bit.ly/3vTiACF. Bloomberg Intelligence Senior Airlines Analyst George Ferguson and Bloomberg News Projects and Investigations Reporter Peter Robison break down the FFA testimony before the House on Boeing's blowout. Christina Stembel, Founder of Farmgirl Flowers, discusses the impact of inflation on the floral industry this Valentine's Day. Ivan Feinseth, Senior Partner and Chief Investment Officer at Tigress Financial Partners, shares his thoughts on Ford earnings. And we Drive to the Close with Liz Young, Head of Investment Strategy at SoFi. Hosts: Carol Massar and Tim Stenovec. Producer: Paul Brennan. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Country music legend, Toby Keith, has died at 62 after battling stomach cancer. Also, the countdown to the Super Bowl is underway with the festivities getting started yesterday in Las Vegas. Plus, Common Sense Media released their annual “State of Kids and Families in America” report that details how parents and children are feeling right now. And, CEO and founder of Farmgirl Flowers, Christina Sembel, shares some of her favorite Valentine's Day ideas

Episode 512: Shaan Puri (https://twitter.com/ShaanVP) is joined by guest co-host Codie Sanchez(https://twitter.com/Codie_Sanchez) to bring some estrogen up in this b*tch. Today's episode breaks down 4 businesses women would throw their money at if they existed.  Want to see more MFM? Subscribe to our YouTube channel here. Want MFM Merch? Check out our store here. Want to see the best clips from MFM? Subscribe to our clips channel here. — Check Out Shaan's Stuff: • Try Shepherd Out - https://www.supportshepherd.com/ • Shaan's Personal Assistant System - http://shaanpuri.com/remoteassistant • Power Writing Course - https://maven.com/generalist/writing • Small Boy Newsletter - https://smallboy.co/ • Daily Newsletter - https://www.shaanpuri.com/ Check Out Sam's Stuff: • Hampton - https://www.joinhampton.com/ • Ideation Bootcamp - https://www.ideationbootcamp.co/ • Copy That - https://copythat.com/ — Show Notes: (0:00) Intro (3:00) Traditional Wife Movement (7:00) Anti-Call Her Daddy (13:00) Business idea: Hobby Lobby 2.0 (21:00) Business idea: Pop-up Seasonal Retail (26:00) Business Idea: Fantasy Werewolf Romance Novel (33:00) Business Idea: Gamified Fertility Tracking (38:00) Business Idea: Helping Gay Male Couples Adopt (46:00) Codie's small business acquisition portfolio (49:00) Codie's first million (53:00) Laundromats: The gateway drug of businesses (59:00) Codie's Best and Worst deals (1:08:00) Shaan's basic b*tch hobbies (1:10:00) How to be more interesting (1:13:00) American Enterprise Institute and Arthur Brooks (1:17:00) Unpopular political opinion: Govern yourself (1:20:00) Playbook: Creating the Codie Sanchez brand (1:24:00) Content flywheel for business acquisition (1:27:00) Codie addresses her critics — Links: • Contrarian Thinking - https://contrarianthinking.co/ • Codie's website - https://www.codiesanchez.com/ • Mira - https://www.miracare.com/ • Flo - https://www.flow.health/ • Farmgirl Flowers - http://farmgirlflowers.com/ • Hone - https://honehealth.com/ • Sam's blog post about ebooks - https://tinyurl.com/mypk8rkb • AEI - https://www.aei.org/ Past guests on My First Million include Rob Dyrdek, Hasan Minhaj, Balaji Srinivasan, Jake Paul, Dr. Andrew Huberman, Gary Vee, Lance Armstrong, Sophia Amoruso, Ariel Helwani, Ramit Sethi, Stanley Druckenmiller, Peter Diamandis, Dharmesh Shah, Brian Halligan, Marc Lore, Jason Calacanis, Andrew Wilkinson, Julian Shapiro, Kat Cole, Codie Sanchez, Nader Al-Naji, Steph Smith, Trung Phan, Nick Huber, Anthony Pompliano, Ben Askren, Ramon Van Meer, Brianne Kimmel, Andrew Gazdecki, Scott Belsky, Moiz Ali, Dan Held, Elaine Zelby, Michael Saylor, Ryan Begelman, Jack Butcher, Reed Duchscher, Tai Lopez, Harley Finkelstein, Alexa von Tobel, Noah Kagan, Nick Bare, Greg Isenberg, James Altucher, Randy Hetrick and more. — Other episodes you might enjoy: • #224 Rob Dyrdek - How Tracking Every Second of His Life Took Rob Drydek from 0 to $405M in Exits • #209 Gary Vaynerchuk - Why NFTS Are the Future • #178 Balaji Srinivasan - Balaji on How to Fix the Media, Cloud Cities & Crypto • #169 - How One Man Started 5, Billion Dollar Companies, Dan Gilbert's Empire, & Talking With Warren Buffett • ​​​​#218 - Why You Should Take a Think Week Like Bill Gates • Dave Portnoy vs The World, Extreme Body Monitoring, The Future of Apparel Retail, "How Much is Anthony Pompliano Worth?", and More • How Mr Beast Got 100M Views in Less Than 4 Days, The $25M Chrome Extension, and More

So you want to (or have to) bootstrap your business. Nicole is self-funding the business that makes this very podcast, and she will tell you: it is not easy. To share best-practices around protecting your bottom line and mental health, Nicole and Jason are joined by Christina Stembel, who has self-funded her business Farmgirl Flowers. Learn more about Christina and her biz here: https://farmgirlflowers.com/about Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Christina Stembel, Founder of Farmgirl Flowers, discusses the impact of inflation on flowers for Mother's Day.Hosts: Carol Massar and Matt Miller. Producer: Paul Brennan.  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Christina Stembel, Founder of Farmgirl Flowers, discusses the impact of inflation on flowers for Mother's Day.Hosts: Carol Massar and Matt Miller. Producer: Paul Brennan.  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

How can you throw out the playbook and create your own rules? Christina Stembel, founder & CEO of Farmgirl Flowers never thought about being an entrepreneur until she saw an opportunity to bring beautiful and affordable flowers to the everyday person. Without any business education, she grew her company to a multimillion dollar business that is the only large scale, female founded and predominantly female run ecommerce flower company. She shares how to embrace the discomfort of the unknown, how authenticity makes your brand stand out, why you don't need the approval of investors, and how to go back to your roots and think outside the box. - Sign up for Cathy's retreat and get the early bird bonuses! Cathyheller.com/retreat - Follow Cathy on Cameo! Cathyheller.com/cameo - Buy Farmgirl Flowers at farmgirlflowers.com - Follow Farmgirl Flowers on Instagram @farmgirlflowers and Christina @christinastembel  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

We'll address the big question first: Christina Stembel of Farmgirl Flowers really did grow up on a farm. Growing up in northern Indiana, Christina was expected to fulfill her womanly duties as a wife and mother while her brother went off to college. But Christina had other plans. She hightailed it to New York within two weeks of graduating from high school and started working. Christina did not grow up with a lot of people cheering her on and wishing her success, and that made her strive for it all the more. Over some years and many different ideas, she saw that the floral industry held an opportunity to do exactly what she desired in starting her own business: disrupt the status quo, create scalability, and do good in the world. While not without its challenges (who knew the floral industry could be so cutthroat?), Christina has scaled from 56K her first year of business to $31 million 8 years later. As Christina fondly says, success is the best revenge. Thanks for listening! Don't forget to order Rebecca's new book, Fearless: The New Rules for Unlocking Creativity, Courage, and Success. Follow Superwomen on Instagram. Big Ideas Less than 3% of women get funding from venture capital. Discussing the disparity in capital support between male and female founders. The value in trusting your instincts. --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/superwomen/support

Christina Stembel, Founder of Farmgirl Flowers, discusses the impact of inflation and supply chain challenges on the floral industry ahead of Valentine's Day. Hosts: Carol Massar and Mike Regan. Producer: Paul Brennan.  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Christina Stembel, Founder of Farmgirl Flowers, discusses the impact of inflation and supply chain challenges on the floral industry ahead of Valentine's Day. Hosts: Carol Massar and Mike Regan. Producer: Paul Brennan.  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This week, Rachel and Roberta discuss the very important royal anniversary happening next week. Also: Kate's new early years campaign, the archbishop caught in a royal family feud, Prince Andrew's bathtub bomb, red pantsuits, the Archewell Impact Report, Valentine's Day plans (plus a code for 20% off a gorgeous set of blooms from Farmgirl Flowers) and more. Grab a Spiced Mule (for the Spice Girl x coronation rumors, obviously) and tune in!--Presented by PureWow and Gallery Media Group. Follow all the royal news at purewow.com/royals. Shop Royally Obsessed sweatshirts and totes at shop.royallyobsessed.com. Follow us on Instagram at @RoyallyObsessedPodcast.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

An executive creative director, UX practitioner, brand strategist and visual designer who designs for the tech world but encourages everyone to always be designing their life. Lisa started her design life as a self-proclaimed creative through painting and photography, then regrettably sold all her work at a garage sale during a confidence crisis in her early 20s. She switched to graphic design and founded a web design studio where she was discovered online by Ernst & Young Consulting who were building a Center for Technology Enablement practice. After a rigorous stint building a bi-coastal team of creatives for the center, Lisa went on to find her place as an entrepreneur using a colorful mix of art, technology and business. She helped Hewlett Packard's education division build a global e-commerce experience. She opened an invitation company in Santa Barbara that was selected to be part of a television series for The Learning Channel focused on high-end wedding designers, their lifestyle and how they run their design business - winning features in InStyle, Destination Weddings and Your Wedding Day Magazines. Lisa led the brand and communication department at Stanford Law School, building an online solution recognized as a finalist by the Society for New Communications Research for Innovation of Year. She now runs an underground studio for her company called razpberrizoo creative where she strengthens brands, designs digital products and strategizes on UX for the likes of 20th Century Studios (Walt Disney), Stanford University, Jones Lang LaSalle, Farmgirl Flowers, First Republic Bank, Pfizer, Hewlett Packard, Beckman Coulter, CSC and Hot Topic. She also co-owns an early-stage AI-based health and wellness start-up where her team is attempting to change everyone's mindset about exercise. You can find out more at designinglisapeacock.com

From the archive: This episode was originally recorded and published in 2019. Our interviews on Entrepreneurs On Fire are meant to be evergreen, and we do our best to confirm that all offers and URL's in these archive episodes are still relevant. Christina Stembel is the founder of Farmgirl Flowers, a $23M company that's reinventing the floral industry's business model to eliminate waste and elevate the customer experience. Top 3 Value Bombs: 1. Identify what problem you're solving and what you want your company to do. 2. It's important to have a team that appreciates the transparency within the company and that will get through anything with you. 3. Know your KPI's; know your numbers. Check out what Christina has going on! - FarmGirlFlowers Sponsors: HubSpot: A platform that's easy for your entire team to use! Learn how HubSpot can make it easier for your business to grow better at Hubspot.com! Closers.io: A world-leading sales training and certification company. For more info on their sales certification visit Closers.io/eof!

From the archive: This episode was originally recorded and published in 2019. Our interviews on Entrepreneurs On Fire are meant to be evergreen, and we do our best to confirm that all offers and URL's in these archive episodes are still relevant. Christina Stembel is the founder of Farmgirl Flowers, a $23M company that's reinventing the floral industry's business model to eliminate waste and elevate the customer experience. Top 3 Value Bombs: 1. Identify what problem you're solving and what you want your company to do. 2. It's important to have a team that appreciates the transparency within the company and that will get through anything with you. 3. Know your KPI's; know your numbers. Check out what Christina has going on! - FarmGirlFlowers Sponsors: HubSpot: A platform that's easy for your entire team to use! Learn how HubSpot can make it easier for your business to grow better at Hubspot.com! Closers.io: A world-leading sales training and certification company. For more info on their sales certification visit Closers.io/eof!

In this Gladly podcast episode, hear from Founder & CEO of Farmgirl Flowers, Christina Stembel, on the brands' success in powering customer acquisition through customer service, on how prioritizing loyalty is the future of commerce, and more. 

Alan Patricof, Co-Founder of Primetime Partners and Chairman Emeritus & Co-Founder at Greycroft, discusses Thursday's market sell-off, as well as his book "No Red Lights: Reflections on Life, 50 Years in Venture Capital, and Never Driving Alone." Founder and CEO of Farmgirl Flowers, Christina Stembel, discusses the impacts of inflation and supply chain issues on the flower industry. Alan Armstrong, CEO at Williams, breaks down the global energy crunch and how his company is working to bridge the gaps. And we Drive to the Close with Jimmy Lee, CEO at Wealth Consulting Group. Hosted by Carol Massar and Tim Stenovec. Producer: Paul Brennan See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Alan Patricof, Co-Founder of Primetime Partners and Chairman Emeritus & Co-Founder at Greycroft, discusses Thursday's market sell-off, as well as his book "No Red Lights: Reflections on Life, 50 Years in Venture Capital, and Never Driving Alone." Founder and CEO of Farmgirl Flowers, Christina Stembel, discusses the impacts of inflation and supply chain issues on the flower industry. Alan Armstrong, CEO at Williams, breaks down the global energy crunch and how his company is working to bridge the gaps. And we Drive to the Close with Jimmy Lee, CEO at Wealth Consulting Group. Hosted by Carol Massar and Tim Stenovec. Producer: Paul Brennan See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Christina Stembel is the Founder and CEO of Farmgirl Flowers, a national floral delivery that offers high-quality and beautiful arrangements. 11 years ago, Christina set out to transform the way we shop for flowers by providing fewer, better options. Today, her beloved brand, which started out of her tiny apartment using $49,000 in savings, has scaled to tens of millions of dollars in revenue – without a single cent from investors. To this day, Farmgirl Flowers remains completely bootstrapped and is recognized for its signature whimsical and eco-conscious designs.In our conversation, Christina shares what it was like growing up on a soybean farm in rural Indiana, how it shaped her perceptions of gender roles, and why she didn't end up going to college. We also spend some time discussing the early days of Farmgirl Flowers, some of the biggest challenges she faced (like getting over 100 rejections from investors), and how she built her company into a multimillion-dollar business with no network, no support, and very little money.Christina's business journey has required a tremendous amount of resilience and growth. She also shares how she saved Farmgirl Flowers from almost going out of business in COVID, the steps she took to accelerate the growth shortly after & have the most profitable year in the business, and so much more.In this episode, we'll talk to Christina about:* Christina's upbringing on a farm in Indiana and how their view of gender roles meant she could not pursue a college degree. [3:01]* Christina's move to San Francisco, why she's grateful to have worked her way from the bottom to the top, and why college isn't the right path for everyone. [5:16]* Why we need to challenge the narrative that women are lucky to turn their hobbies into businesses, while men start businesses based on research. [7:39]* Common biases among funders and how Christina's pedigree posed an insurmountable barrier to attracting funding. [8:38]* The years Christina spent researching different industries, and how she chose to start her company and disrupt the flower delivery industry. [13:59]* Why Christina's company needed to be bootstrapped. [16:03]* How Christina decided to leave her stable job and use 49,000 dollars in savings to build her company. [16:57]* An early instance where Christina almost had to close down her business, and how she built it back up. [19:49]* How Christina gained traction and built momentum through word of mouth and very little money. [22:12]* What sets Farmgirl Flowers apart from other flower delivery companies. [25:44]* The highly perishable nature of flowers, and the stressful nature of Christina's supply chain. [27:53]* How Christina has built resilience and deals with the stress of running her business [29:57]* Why learning to compartmentalize and create distance from your business takes practice [31:57]* How COVID forced them to pivot in multiple ways and become a more profitable company. [35:14]* Why funding doesn't equal success and the freedom that comes from that. [43:24]* Christina shares three pieces of top advice for women entrepreneurs. [50:05]* Some of the exciting plans that Christina has for Farmgirl Flowers. [53:46]* The importance of paying yourself as an owner and CEO. [55:15]This episode is brought to you by beeya: * Learn more about beeya's seed cycling bundle at https://beeyawellness.com/free to find out how to tackle hormonal imbalances. * Get $10 off your order by using promo code BEHINDHEREMPIREFollow Christina:* Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/farmgirlflowers/* Christina's Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/christinastembel/* Website: https://www.farmgirlflowers.com/ See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

About this episode In the past month or so, I've had a few newer listeners reach out to me asking me when I would share a bit more about my story and how I got to the point of bringing The Startup Story to market. Well, as I responded to each of those listeners, I realized that it has been almost two years since my startup story episode has been released. What I also realized is that, when we did release that episode we were sitting at around 30,000 listeners…well we are now close to 100,000 listeners so it seems like it might be advantageous to replay my story for our newer, and much larger audience. This is also the only episode of the show where I am not the host. I could not tell my Startup Story without having my wife be part of the telling because so much of what I've been through has also been part of her story; and that is just the reality of marriage. There is no compartmentalizing things when you are married. As an entrepreneur, your startup plays an enormous role in your marriage…and that is why I had to have her join the show to ask me the questions that I probably wouldn't naturally share had she not asked me. This episode is incredibly raw! In this episode, you'll hear: How I watched my dad grow his side hustle into a multimillion-dollar enterprise, and how it shaped my future Some of my early side hustles, dating all the way back to elementary school About being kicked out at the age of 16, living on my own, and how my dad delivered discipline in an intentional way How learning lessons of hard work and determination affected me as I continued to grow My focus and what I wanted to do with my life and how and why I joined the Marines About building and growing a promotional product business and recalling on the day I lost it all, and how it affected my wife Resources from this episode Grindology Magazine: http://grindologymagazine.com/ Grindology on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/grindology Larry Namer, founder of E! Entertainment Television: https://www.thestartupstory.co/episodes/larry-namer-founder-of-e-entertainment-television Ben Chestnut, co-founder of Mailchimp: https://www.thestartupstory.co/episodes/ben-chestnut-co-founder-of-mailchimp Christina Stembel, founder of Farmgirl Flowers: https://www.thestartupstory.co/episodes/christina-stembel-founder-of-farmgirl-flowers 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 My LinkedIn Profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jamesmckinney1/ 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.

Christina Stembel started Farmgirl Flowers to improve the way the commercial flower industry offers choice, quality, and price. Today she's at the helm of a growing company that serves flower lovers nationwide. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

A 4-decade ban on Happy Hours in Massachusetts may soon be coming to an end -- We didn't even know that some states didn't have Happy Hours! But are they as exciting as they used to be? Olympic wrap up: America, F*** Yeah. Andrew just learned about the Olympic Sport of Racewalking, which looks like a faster version of power walking. Pam has also had her eye on Baseball and Rock Climbing. Quick updates: The Eviction Moratorium and Student Loan Relief programs have been extended, and New York Governor Andrew Cuomo is stepping down in disgrace.  #Millennial listener and Patreon supporter Ashley joins the show to discuss how the world of advertiser targeting works. We learn how advertisers follow you around the internet, and the extremely creepy ways they keep tabs on you in your everyday life. She also shares how you can protect yourself from all this tracking. Ashley is also a firm believer in using ASMR to manage anxiety, so she explains why it's effect and her favorite videos. She recommends ASMR Magic, Caroline ASMR, ASMR Bakery, Certified Mood ASMR, James Matthew ASMR, Nourishing Noble ASMR, and Fairy Char ASMR Pam shares thoughts on Suicide Squad, and we olds gossip about who will be come the new host of Jeopardy.  Recommendations: Andrew re-recommends the Chirp Wheel after a fresh wave of reviews come in from his family; Pam recommends Farmgirl Flowers, and Ashley recommends the compostable Pela phone cases #Millennial listener Natalie has a coupon for listeners interested in her Custom Funko Pop! Vinyls: Visit her Etsy store and use code MILLENNIAL for 10% off! This week's episode is sponsored by Thirdlove. Get 20% off your first order by going to Thirdlove.com/millennial.

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.

Let's talk online shopping for your wedding! It is becoming the preferred route for planning and purchasing wedding items. You can literally purchase anything online - from cake cutting sets to bridesmaid's dresses and florals. We wanted to share the pros and cons of online shopping for your wedding as well as some of the best sites and resources to make planning and shopping for your wedding as easy as can be!  In this episode you'll hear:    When to buy online vs when to buy in person    Place in your wedding to splurge and places to cut back on spending   Online sites to utilizing when shopping for your wedding Links to all the things mentioned:    LoveStream   LoveStream Blog | Ways To Make Your Wedding For The World   LoveSream Blog | Where To Splurge And Where To Save On Your Small Wedding   DIY Wedding Tips & Tricks Podcast   Bouqs Co | Flowers    FTD | Flowers   Flower Moxie   Farmgirl Flowers   Etsy   Revolve   Lulus Online   BHLDN | Wedding Attire   Olive & Piper | Wedding Jewelry Generation Tux Black Tux If you have a question or fun story to share (we love hearing them!) email us at podcast@bustld.com  CONNECT WITH US!  Website Instagram Facebook Podcast Website

Celebrating its 10th anniversary, Farmgirl Flowers is a national floral eCommerce brand that features beautiful hand curated arrangements and bouquets wrapped in their signature upcycled burlap coffee sacks. In this episode, Founder and CEO, Christina Stembel, shares with us her incredible journey from growing up on a farm in Indiana to moving to New York City to pursue acting, to working as the Director of Alumni Relations at Stanford Law School, to launching Farmgirl Flowers from her apartment using just her savings. What started as a one woman bootstrapped operation has blossomed into a team of over 160 people that spans 2 continents and 6 distribution centers. We talk about her experience being rejected by investors, how COVID affected her business, and how she's defied all the odds in building a self-funded flower empire expected to hit over $100M in revenue by the end of this year.

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

Farmgirl Flowers CEO Christina Stembel shares how she built her business from the ground up, created growth in a challenging year, and inspired countless Instagram-worthy moments and memories for customers. Learn more at retailgetsreal.com.

Christina Stembel, founder & CEO of Farmgirl Flowers, sits down with Carolyn to discuss growing up in a town with 3,600 people, why she started Farmgirl Flowers, bootstrapping her company, the Farmgirl Flowers bike couriers, the 104 no's she received from VC firms when trying to raise capital but is now grateful for, and more from her founder's journey.1:10 Christina discusses why she started Farmgirl Flowers4:09 Christina talks about growing up in a town with 3,600 people in Northern Indiana, not going to college, and working at Stanford7:53 Why the e-commerce flower industry was declining in 200910:55 How Christina created a new design category of flower bouquets for Farmgirl Flowers 15:06 The origins and end of the bike courier service at Farmgirl Flowers21:34 Challenges with shipping and projecting sells for perishable products like flowers25:07 The difficulty of getting peonies throughout the year and Christina's thoughts on purchasing a peony farm28:44 Christina discusses the 104 no's she received from VC firms when trying to raise capital, and why she's now grateful that she never raised funding36:34 Why Farmgirl Flowers uses burlap bags and how it cuts down on plastic use

Joining me in today’s episode is Christina Stembel, the Founder of Farmgirl Flowers. Farmgirl Flowers reimagined the way people shop for flowers, plants and non-perishable gifts by offering fewer, better options and a best-in-class unboxing and customer experience. Christina started this business in 2010 and is the only sole female founder & CEO of a large scale e-commerce floral company, who bootstrapped the business into $60+ million in annual revenue.In this episode we’re covering how Christina went in pursuit of disrupting an industry she had experienced a problem in, how she bootstrapped her brand from a $49k investment into a business that will do more than 60 million in revenue this year, the strategies that she used to acquire customers without a marketing budget and why this year has been her biggest year of growth. I so enjoyed this episode and came away feeling so invigorated in my own pursuit to build Female Startup Club - and I hope you get that same energy too. As always, please do subscribe, rate and review the podcast if you’re loving these founder stories. LINKS WE MENTION: Farmgirl Flowers Instagram Christina’s Instagram Farmgirl Flowers Website Female Startup Club's Instagram In partnership with Klaviyo, the best email marketing tool for ecommerce businesses.Promotional code: FSC20 for 20% off sitewide - no expiration

In this epic roundup episode, we took our favorite moments from every interview this year and combined them to create our most jam-packed episode yet: Foundr Best of 2020! That’s right, in this very special episode, you’ll hear valuable insights from:  Drew Houston, CEO and founder of DropBox: On problem-solving, his formula for success in business, and how he— as a billion-dollar CEO — still learns every single day.  Dylan Mullen, Founder, and Director of Happy Skin Co. Mullen reveals how he built a $20 million dollar company in 24 months, and how they’re acquiring their customers.  Alexa Von Tobel, Founder of Learnvest, & Inspire Capital: Why you shouldn’t spend a dollar on marketing, and what it takes to be a ‘good entrepreneur’.  Gretta Van Riel, 4x Multi-Milion Dollar Founder. Van Riel discusses why she would spend $500k on a post from Kylie Jenner, and her $1.3m manufacturing horror story.  Henrik Werderlin, founder and CEO of Barkbox, and the strategy that Apple and Amazon have used to build global, beloved brands.  You’re about to learn the mistake that every new entrepreneur makes, as discussed by Alex Osterwalder, the Swiss business theorist who developed the “business model canvas”.  Author Kamal Ravikant reveals why you don’t need a mentor (from someone who’s been down the road a few times). Christina Stembel, founder of Farmgirl Flowers on how she managed to turn $49,000 into almost a million dollars in 3 years— all thanks to the success of her company. Here’s Skillshare founder Malcolm Ong… who’s about to reveal the one word that will make you a better entrepreneur.  Thor Ernstsson, Founder of Strata. The 2 tips that every single entrepreneur needs to hear. One of the internet’s greatest pioneers, cofounder of WordPress Matt Mullenweg on what motivates him.  GT’s living foods founder, GT Dave. He reveals to us the key to staying on your path, and not losing your identity.  Andy Frisella, founder of 1st Phorm with one of the most fired up conversations of the year. Enjoy this snippet where he’s going to tell you why building a brand is important, and the issue with comparing yourself to Steve Jobs.

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

Learn more about The Financial GymSupport the show and even get on monthly mentorship calls with Fabian. Join here.-------->Full Transcript:F Geyrhalter:Welcome to the show, Shannon.S McLay:Thank you. So happy to be here.F Geyrhalter:Yeah, thanks for being here. You are the CEO and founder of The Financial Gym, a fitness inspired personal financial services company that to me shouts millennials and Generation Z. I have proved since my brand consultancy's creative lead, Chessy, brought up your brand to me and she shared the surprise swag bag with me that comes with a tote saying, "Money is my spirit animal." It also has a little card that's signed by you. Then I had to look into Financial Gym a little bit more because she was super excited about it. She just signed up. I had to immediately invite you to be on the show. I'm a huge proponent of financial literacy and empowerment. How could you not be, right?S McLay:Right.F Geyrhalter:I'm originally from Austria where things are a little bit different than Europe when it comes to financial literacy and the whole social environment, but here in the US, it is definitely a crisis. I heard the statistic. I believe it was even a Forbes article that I researched where they mentioned The Financial Gym, but they say that about 40% of Americans would struggle to come up with even $400 to pay for an unexpected bill. That is unbelievable.Obviously, what you're doing is crucially needed here in the US, creating that kind of platform that speaks the language of the next generation is absolutely heaven sent. How did it all start? Give us a quick tour of what happened in the last, gosh, like eight, seven years, something like that, right?S McLay:Seven years. Seven very long years stated. And yet they've gone by in a flash. So yeah, we are dealing with a financial health crisis and it's been around for a long time. I wasn't really aware of it until I became a financial advisor at Merrill Lynch, and I became an advisor after a 13-year career in financial services where I was working for investment banks, for a hedge fund briefly. I was always around money and making money, so I didn't think too much about my own personal finances, my solution to my own personal finances was always, "I'll make more money," and I always did.So I just didn't even think about it. Then I became a Merrill Lynch financial advisor, because I felt like I needed an advisor. I was now in my early 30s and about to buy a home, and have a child, and all that reason to feel like you need some financial planning. When I looked at the financial advisory space, I became woke to it and I always say 85% or pretty much old white man and no offense, I will say I love men, I married one, I birthed one. They're fantastic, but money is really personal.It felt very unfair if somebody couldn't find who they wanted to work with. I thought if you can't beat them, join them. So I became a Merrill advisor. To work with me, you have debt of $250,000 in assets. You didn't even count as a client unless you did, and I didn't think anything of that. I thought this will be easy for me to find clients. I have been around money, and I was finding clients.I laughed, because the gym never would've existed if I took the advice of my first Merrill advisor/mentor. He said, "Pre-screen all your meetings. Make sure that they have money before you even meet with them. Because if they don't have money, they won't even count. So they won't even waste your time." I remember thinking to myself, because he was an old white guy like, "Okay, boomer." Before, okay boomer was a thing, right? I was like, "What?"I was like, "I have plenty of time. I can meet with whoever I want to meet with and I'm not going to ask somebody how much money they have before I even have coffee with them." So I needed a point of taking every meeting, and one of my first meetings with what I would then call my pro bono clients was this woman who was looking for a financial planner and came through a friend of a friend. We sat down and it was like a scene from a movie.She was like, "I have 250,000 of student loan debt. I make $50,000 a year and all this stuff." Like, "Oh my God." The kicker for me was she said, "And I feel unlovable. Who would want to marry me with all this debt?" I had no idea how to help this woman. I hadn't seen a profile like this before and I thought a Merrill Lynch wealth management package is going to just depress her. So I couldn't help her at Merrill, but I wanted to help her, and I figured out and did a plan on the side.Then I became the process of becoming the worst financial advisor ever, because I loved my clients with no money. I found real joy and passion in helping people figure out their finances, and that led to I call the Oprah Ah-hah week for the gym where I started with a meeting with a couple. We were doing their quarterly review, and they had $1.3 million invests with me and their portfolio was down 3%.It was like the end of the world for them. They are like, "Where's our money? How are the kids going to go to college? How are we going to pay our bills?" I spent an hour of my life making them feel better about being a little less rich. It was just really soul-sucking. I thought, I guess this is what an advisor does.Then two days later, I had a plan meeting with a pro bono client. I did a plan for just like we do at the gym, just bulleted, "Here's how much you need to save. Here's how you deal with the student loans. Here's what you do with the credit cards." At the end of the meeting, she said, "You know you're saving my life, right?" I was like, "This feels so much better than that meeting." It was the ah-hah of, "I need to create a business for people like this," which is the majority of Americans like you're saying.It all came to very clearly. It's interesting I think about this a lot, because I never wanted to start a business. I never wanted to be an entrepreneur, but in that moment, everything was very clear. I was also in this weight loss journey and I remember thinking around the same time like when I wanted to get physically healthy, I had so many places I could go to physically healthy. But if people want to get financially healthy, where would they go?That was my dilemma is where do I send these pro bono clients to a place that's going to treat them like human beings with care, and decency and respect just because it doesn't matter what's in their bank account. I thought, if you want to get this financially healthy, you go to a financial gym. It was very clear to me I said, "It's like H in our block, but fun and cool, and advisors or trainers they wear jeans and T-shirts." People pay a monthly membership fee just like a regular gym, and that was seven years ago.F Geyrhalter:That's amazing.S McLay:In a long seven years.F Geyrhalter:No, I'm sure. What a great story. It literally came to you the whole gym analogy came to you immediately, because of the situation that you were in, but did it all start with that brand name of financial gym and everything just, it all just came together right in front of you?S McLay:Yeah. You know what's really funny is I'm a blonde so I tell people, "I'm not really that creative." It's very clear to me.F Geyrhalter:Hey, I'm a blonde. I'm creative. You're putting a bad wrap on those.S McLay:No, I own my blondness. I just remember thinking it's a financial gym, a place to go work out. The funny thing about the brand over the seven years is that you can imagine I've had brand specialist say to me, "Have you ever thought about changing the name? Because it's just so obvious." They don't like it because it's so obvious and I'm like, "But I like it because it's so obvious." Because in my mind we're like the Kleenex of financial health. Where else would you go but a financial gym to get financially healthy?That always surprised me when we got into the branding process formally. So seven years ago I thought it's financial gym, we own the trademark for it. I thought this is it, it's financial gym. Maybe at some point I thought maybe we're the money gym, but we kept coming back to Financial Gym, because I didn't want it to seem like a cash payday loan place, which would feel more like a money gym. I said, "It's Financial Gym." Then we went through this formal branding process after we raised our first round of venture capital money.Everybody that we interviewed for the process wanted to create a new name. Everybody wanted to create a new name.F Geyrhalter:How interesting.S McLay:Yeah and I was like, "Money is confusing enough. I don't want what we do to be confusing." I don't want to be glitter and we're a financial services company. I just don't understand that part of branding, but that's me. I just always wanted to be very clear about it. What's funny is that we had people who didn't love it, but our clients get it. It's clear to people when they come to us what we do even if it's not totally clear exactly how we do it, they get the concept.F Geyrhalter:Totally. You just talked to the wrong brand specialist. If you would've talked to me Shannon, I would've said, "Keep the name." Look, there's something to be said. The whole reason why I have this podcast and now we're on episode 50 or 52, God knows what, is because I can't hear myself talk about branding anymore because I do it all day. Actually, listening to people who did it and very often, there was so much gut instinct involved in creating the name or creating what the brand stands for. So often, it goes against a lot of the brand thinking, right? That specialist like myself usually bring to the table.I think that is what is so fascinating to me, because it doesn't all need to go exactly according to a big book that has been written about this is how branding needs to work. Financial gym literally after you have that name, the language was just so easy, right? To create the actual language. It's funny, so your client met with a BFF, that's your best financial friend. The call to action on your website says, "Let's crash some goals." Trainers introduce themselves by saying, so trainers not advisors, trainers introduce themselves by saying, "You're about to get financially naked with me.Your podcast is called, "Martinis and Your Money." The description reads, "Shannon created this educational and entertaining podcast combining two of her favorite activities, drinking and talking about money." How have you defined the brand personality early on? Because that tone of voice, it is so authentic. It's not really crafted. It just feels authentic, but it's such a fine line to come across as hip and empathetic versus unauthentic especially with this group, right? If we're talking mid-30s and it seems like that's most probably the group like late 20s to early, early 40s. That's the sweet spot most likely.S McLay:Yeah, it is. Our youngest client is 17, our oldest is 74, because we always say just like a regular gym, anyone can work out here. Yeah, what's interesting is finding the authenticity of the voice. I worked in financial services for 13 years, and so I knew the voice that wasn't going to be. It was that. It was like as long as it didn't feel like that, then it was this in my mind. I knew very well what the jargon and what I didn't want it to be.So whenever we have gone through those iterations or finding the right tone in the balance, and we went through a lot of those exercises in that branding process that we went through a little over three years ago now of what is the voice. What's interesting going back to the feedback you got from the team, they wanted us to have a more serious voice, because they're like, "Well, you're authoritative. You want to be the authority." I was like, "Yeah, but we don't have to be in their phase about I don't want to have to wear a Hilary Clinton pant suit for me to have authority. We can have it in a more casual way."It was always really important for me that our authority came through that we were actually saying versus what we looked like and the jeans and T-shirts and all of that was really important to me, because that was definitely not something I saw at Bank of America, at Merrill Lynch that I thought was really important, that I haven't seen anywhere else that was really important for us to have.We stuck very true to it. It's funny because I always envisioned jeans and T-shirts like I'd seen trainers are ... Really, actually our trainers are allowed to wear anything from below the waste. It's just the financial gym T-shirt above the waste. I don't love personally jeans and T-shirt look. I don't personally love that. I think it's funny I created a brand that I wear it every day and I don't necessarily love it.I've been on the Today Show. I've been on CNBC. I've been on Squawk Box and they're like, "Are you going to wear a T-shirt?" I was like, "Yeah, I'm wearing a T-shirt. I'm not changing for you guys." The only challenge we had on the Today Show is they wouldn't let me wear the logo, so I had to wear just a black T-shirt. Friends and family were like, "Why are you in jeans on Today Show?" I was like, "That's our brand."So if people can't see, hear what I'm saying and know that I'm in authority and they're going to get focused on what I'm wearing then they are the wrong people for us anyway.F Geyrhalter:No, totally. I mean, you have to exclude many in order to gain some, right? That's the whole idea. Coming from that background where you have been in a very stiff and unattractive environment in the financial services industry, especially when it comes to the advising part, you want to do everything exactly the opposite, right? So whatever they do, like you said, it is so easy. How do they do it? They all dress up in blazers. How are we going to do it? Jeans and T-shirts. It was like a nice blueprint for you to follow.Your brand icon, we have to go there, because we're talking branding. They're actually my initials, it's FG, which is really awkward whenever my employee gets mail from you. She's like, "I just got a cup with your initials on it from Financial Gym. I'm not sure what I'm going to do with it." In all seriousness, why did you opt out for that simple FG instead of like an icon or anything like that that your tribe can wear proudly? Especially now that I know you went through a branding.S McLay:Yes. You know what's so funny Fabian is that did not come ... An icon did not come up in our initial branding. We went through with a many branding process a year later where we came up with the BFF concept. The icon didn't come up again. The icon actually did not come up until a recent board meeting with a recent board investor who asked about an icon. Again, I don't know a lot about branding and nobody had brought it up. We had the FG logo is like our smaller logo, but there wasn't the talk of some unique symbol.So actually, it's something we're in the process of creating. One of our clients is working with us who does design work. We're working on an icon to replace, yeah. That will be a thing in the past, your initials. We are working on an icon, so actually that process just started two months ago. We started the icon process.F Geyrhalter:That is fantastic.S McLay:We're right in the middle of it. It's funny you had mentioned that Fabian.F Geyrhalter:Well, there we go.S McLay:I wish we did it three years ago, but again, I didn't think about it. I was so upset we had to pay so much money for the branding experience, because again, I just didn't know anything about starting a business. I remember seeing the price tags of the services and I was like, "This is insane. They're picking colors? Why are we paying so much for colors?" My lead investor is like, "You just don't understand branding, Shannon." I was like, "You're right. I guess I don't."F Geyrhalter:Now that we talked about how Shannon does not understand branding, yet she creates a brand that people love, and it's a very empathetic brand. I know that Chessie, my creative lead, when she got all the swag and everything and she met with her advisor whose last name by the way is Penny, because I'm never going to forget that. She's like-S McLay:Yes. So Ashley is her trainer. I love her.F Geyrhalter:My financial advisor's last name is Penny. I'm not sure how I feel about that, but I'm like, "This is the funniest thing ever." She is as hip as it gets and she's as brand educator as it can get because she works in the brand consultancy, right? Creating brand mark. She just absolutely love the entire brand experience. So obviously, by using you don't know anything about branding, that is absolutely incorrect. What does-S McLay:I've learned, Fabian. Three years ago, I did.F Geyrhalter:You learned on the job.S McLay:Yeah, I've learned. I always tell my team, "All we can do is get smarter every day. We might not get today right, but we'll get tomorrow right." So I have learned a lot about it over the three years. So I'm getting it.F Geyrhalter:What does it mean to you now? What does branding mean to you?S McLay:Honestly, so I didn't get it three years ago just because of the cost of it. Especially for start-ups, I wish, and there are some more agencies that are more start-up focused, but every day you're running out of money, and you're trying to create the brand and not run out of money before people even know the brand exists. So I just wish there was a better model early on. That being said now, it is truly everything. It's the way that your clients engage with you and identify you. It's the way your team identifies with each other.It really does the tone for everything. I joked about picking out colors, but you know what's funny is I had no idea what our colors should be. We went through the process though and our agency was like, "Well, you don't want to pick green, because it's too obvious, right?" They struggled with us, because they were like ... I was like, "No, it's definitely this name and it's definitely green." We explored other colors, but I was like, "We just have to be green, but not a funny dotty green."What's interesting is, so we have our Financial Gym green, my CMO. She knows the green fonts by the numbers. She could tell you exactly what our power green is or like green and then-F Geyrhalter:She better, yeah.S McLay:She does and she does them often and people ask her. What's funny is after years later, you see the green and you know it's our gym green. We've had clients say, "Oh, that's Financial Gym Green," or we had an employee who works from home. Her husband was like, "I want to paint the room that she does her virtual calls in Financial Gym green," and he did. So when she's on calls, you watch her and it's Financial Gym green. She feels connected to it through our green. So yeah, it just interweaves in so many ways.F Geyrhalter:No, absolutely. You already mentioned a little bit, but let's talk a little bit about company culture, because I just personally think it is so crucial. How do you keep a unified vibe, a unified brand language and the feeling of belonging when I assume the majority of your staff are "trainers," right? So they're out on their own working with your clients. How do you keep that in sync? It is a challenge for everyone, but since you have a very specific operation.S McLay:Yeah. I think honestly, it is around the gym concept and financial health is our mission. I feel very fortunate that we have a business that is mission driven, because it just influences and impacts everything. Financial health is our mission, it's clearly tied to our name and the work that we do. So that's easy to translate. About two years ago, I did ask as we were expanding, I have a mentor. Actually my mentor was the CEO of SoulCycle, Melanie Whelan, and not one of the founders but she's a recent CEO.I was asking about how we could grow, because we had set this really special group of initial employees and this initial location, and we knew we're opening new locations. I said, "How do we keep this secret sauce as we grow?" She gave a number of great ideas. One in particular was to create very strong core values for the company and for everyone to buy into that. Then core values is just the interconnectivity of your team. The core values are actually very much tied to our brand too, because even in the way, like I knew core values from my Bank of America days, which I never ... It was so corporate. I don't even really know what our core values are. It was just something I got in the employee handbook, and I didn't really connect with.So I pooh-pooh that idea initially, but then when she said it I thought, "You know what? We can do core values, but in our brand." So our brand voice, our core values, it actually starts with we believe in. It's this collective of being part of a gym, being part of a community, but even our core values start with "we." We believe in dot, dot, dot and then that's a few different words that define who we are, and that do one of our core values is gymsplaining, which is we ... As opposed to man slang we say we're explaining things in English, financial literacy in English and we believe in the power of it.So it goes into our core values too. Our employees are even reviewed and graded on their core values, and we fired people over core values issues. Because we do practice them and live them, we expect the team to.F Geyrhalter:So many thoughts on what you've just said. First of all, what you said prior and it fits into this that you wish that there would be brand help for start-ups that is actually attainable and easy for them to actually manage. I created this course called, "eRESONAID." So from resonating and aid, RESONAID. Literally, it's like a brand workshop in a box that founders can do. In the end, it is all about their core values. The funny thing is that I ask them to finish the sentence with "because we believe," which is exactly where you're heading with this, right?It's a couple hundred box and it empowers them to actually take a lot of that in house, which sometimes is the best way for entrepreneurs to actually work, because they have it in them. It's just they need the guidance, and they need a process, and they need a framework to actually voice all of this. So I thought that that was really interesting. Talking about mission, so mixing politics and business used to be a no, no, right? But those walls have clearly come down more and more over the years, but especially in the past couple of months which were ... What a roller coaster, right?They were so horrifying for this planet and then they were also so uplifting and empowering, and there was so much positive change because of it. How does Financial Gym see its role in taking stances, and showcasing shared values with its tribe?S McLay:Yeah. The last three months have been extremely challenging as a leader. I'm not going to lie. I think I'm really excited for where we're going and how we've done it. The gym has always been a place of security, because money is the ultimate taboo topic. So one of our core values is in our gyms and our community, and creating safe place for people of any type of person. That's always been our mission. Our mission is financial health and it doesn't matter what the person looks like who's getting financially healthy, and that's always been a practice.So when we make statements as a company or actually one of our core values is empathy. So when it comes to making those statements, I'm actually excited that we can remind people that that's what we do every day, but it's also who we are. It all comes back to our mission, and especially recently to remind people that black wealth matters. It's a challenge we've seen behind the scenes at the gym.Our client's information is private, so we're not ... unless they want to be profiled or talk about their financial experience, we're not putting it out there and publicizing it, but we've known internally the struggles. We see it. We've got a very diverse client mix. We have a very diverse employee mix, and we know. So I'm actually excited that we're now talking about this even though the conversations are hard and challenging.I'm excited that they're coming more to light, because that's how we move forward and that's what we're committed to, and committed to profiling more of that and highlighting more of that situation. We embrace those conversations and we embrace our community that's very diverse. So it all works together. At the end of the day, it's financial health and it doesn't have a look to it.F Geyrhalter:Yeah. How has COVID-19 otherwise, well, in the financial downturn obviously how has that affected your brand? It seems like you would be in higher demands, but also your audience might like the spending power now, right? Even if it's just a very small monthly fee.S McLay:Yeah, so when COVID-19 first happened, that was extremely scary for us because our clients pay a monthly membership fee, so they could cancel it anytime, and that's really important for us to be flexible. So one of the first things we did, we did pause our costs, our monthly fee for people who did lose their jobs from COVID-19 and still continued to work with them. Then we were waiting to see what other dropout we had. The interesting thing is our business has not done better. It's done extremely well because we've just really proven our model, because it's been such an extreme roller coaster ride financially from the financial markets to unemployment, to concerns of recession, to the importance of emergency fund.All the work that we do on a daily basis has been highlighted and compounded during this. So our retention has been extremely high, and we've never gotten more five star reviews in the last three months than we have, because we're just proving our model of, "Gosh, don't you wish you had a BFF for this ride?" It's crazy.F Geyrhalter:It's also a time now where people have more time to think and to plan and to look inward, and to really rethink their life because they're stuck at home.S McLay:Right. Yeah.F Geyrhalter:In person appointments at the gym and events have also been a huge component of your brand, right? Have you pivoted that? How did that affect you?S McLay:Thankfully, we've always worked with people virtually. We've always had the virtual model, because for until just this year actually, we only had one location in New York, and we work with clients in all 50 states. So with the same results. So we know how to get results virtually and we've moved everything virtually. Our in person events are all now virtual. We have our local money tribe, which is our local community groups, they're all virtual. Everything's gone virtual.We've actually seen more engagement, because it's easier for people to get to these things in their home. We've actually seen more engagement on the virtual side. We are in the process of reopening our gyms. We will open all four of them in early July and what we'll be doing is testing out first with our employees and how they can go back in and commute, and all that kind of stuff. Then we'll open it up with different limitations and capacity, but we do have clients who use the gym. As a co-working space, we have a lot of freelancing clients and people have their own businesses.So we still want to be there for them in the safest way possible. My COO has been inundated nonstop with the PPE preparations and how do we do this, because we are committed to opening again and being that safe space again.F Geyrhalter:Yeah, because I was wondering, the way that it worked, so please correct me if I'm wrong, but in the first month you meet your trainer and that's really the big month, right? You get the analysis, you get the plan, but then I was wondering how does Financial Gym provide continuous value to its members? I think you just answered that, right? The idea that you're constantly there for them, there's events, there's groups, and I didn't even know about the co-work space. It sounds like that's also part of the financial thing.S McLay:Yes. There's the accountability, so once people become clients we start tracking your money and we have a system that's like mint.com. I would say anybody can do a financial plan. Financial plans are actually very easy to do. They're just a template, but not many people can seek to a financial plan and that's where we really excel is that accountability, and helping clients through the situation understanding the behavioral finance aspect of it as well. I think that's part of our secret sauce we've learned over the last seven years is being a BFF for our friends is really listening to people and their money stories. That's really guided how we work with our clients and get them the success that we know we can.It's funny we have people just like a regular gym or a fitness program who'll quit early on because they're not seeing results right away. They're like, "Oh, it's a waste of money." It's funny that anchors my trainers more than anything because they're like, "They gave up on themselves." I could've either, they're just like, "If they just gave it some more time. If they just gave it a little more effort." That's the biggest frustration for my team because we know that just like physical health, some people just take a little more time. It just might take a little bit more time to figure out what we need to do, but over a year of working with us, 90% of our clients hit their goals. So we know we can get there. It's a partnership to get there.F Geyrhalter:I think that that is really the amazing component of your brand. Instead, you are not cookie cutting this. Yes, there is like these are the five, six steps to create your plan, and all of this is in a way, cookie cutter. Like you said, it's like, "Yeah, it's actually quite simple," but then the idea to actually listen to your clients, which sounds so logical, but you coming out of the industry you're like, "Well, that's not really how it works." It's like, we listen to how much money you have and then we take it from there.With normal people, I don't know the percentage in the US, but with your potential clients, the emotional baggage that is involved with money, it goes all the way to how you're raised, and it goes to inferior complexes or it goes to ... There's so many complex parts to it that if you feel understood and if someone is dear with you eye to eye and they say, "Well, I know how you feel. Let's get you over to this and I'll do that slowly over the next month." That must be huge. That must be a game-changer.S McLay:Yeah. We do have a number of secret sauces and that is one of them, I mean, just a great example is with COVID-19, I did a review for some clients. And one of my clients spent a thousand dollars in Costco in early mid-March. I was like, "You didn't buy appliances, or [crosstalk 00:33:52] spent a thousand dollars in Costco." It was right when the pandemic was kicking off and people were freaking out, and she was freaking out. She was in the store and she was just like, and she even called her husband from the store. She's like, "I'm freaking out. Come stop me," but he was like, "I'm 20 minutes away so I can't."She loaded up her cart with a thousand dollars. Then two weeks later spent another $500 somewhere else on groceries. I know them. I've been working with them for three years. This is not normal, "normal" for her. She's like, "I just lost my mind. I was so freaked out." I was like, "Did you return any of those things?" She's like, "No." So then now they have to work through their pantry. So one of their exercises for this next quarter is the pantry challenge.I was like, "You are going to be eating." Their pantry, which expanded to their basement. I was like, "How do you even have room in your home for all these things?" That's the work we're doing. I wasn't like, "How could you spend a thousand dollar?" I didn't shame her for it. We don't shame our clients. I get what drove her to that, but I was like, "You know we got to lay off the food this quarter. We got to do all that."F Geyrhalter:Look, she's not the only one, so she can feel good about it. I had to extend our pantry too after my wife came home from a Costco run that was very unusual, very unusual Costco run. It's amazing that you actually talk in that detail and that depth with your clients, because that's really what is necessary. So looking back, what was that one big breakthrough moment? I always love to hear that from entrepreneurs, because it's so difficult. It's not easy being an entrepreneur. It's not easy being a founder. It's not easy being a CEO, you're all of that.When was that moment where you felt like, "You know what? We're turning into a brand. This is going to be real and this is going to be big."S McLay:I haven't had the big moment, but I've had a lot of little moments and that all add up to I'd say the breadcrumbs on the trail that keep you going, and that tell you to get sometimes as an entrepreneur, just to stay in yourself it's breadcrumbs. It's a few things. I didn't put the Financial Gym brand concept out there right away when I first left Merrill, because it was just me bootstrapping it. Even though I always knew it's going to be Financial Gym, I called the bootstrap company Next Gym Financial, because in my mind I always thought, "Well, I could go back and work for Merrill." Like this, "See what happens."I had a handful of clients and then when I finally raised my first investor money, I decided to put the Financial Gym concept out there. It's interesting, because you could see the number of clients that I have from 2015, because that's when I put the Financial Gym name out there, grew significantly. I have a handful clients who started in 2013 when I left, but I have a number of clients now this year who I'm five-year reviews, because I just even put the name Financial Gym out there and they got it. That was always surprising to me, or I love that because it was like just the name sold the business without trying.So 2015 was a big ah-hah. Then just a number of little moments like we have our first location in New York, and I was walking up Madison Avenue wearing one of my gym T-shirts, and this woman yelled from across the street, "Financial Gym, I love you guys." I was like, "Oh my God." New York is so huge and I was like, "Oh my God, I love you too." She knows the brand. Or when I see people tag us on social media and see the experience they're having, they're like, "I love the Financial Gym." Or hearing from people who post things on social and their friends are like, "I heard about that place."From across the country, it's just sometimes because the days are long, but you're like, "We did this. That people have heard about it." Your employee, I don't even know how she found out about us. How did she find out about us?F Geyrhalter:I don't know. It's word of mouth, right?S McLay:Right. There she is. [crosstalk 00:38:23]F Geyrhalter:No, exactly. No, absolutely. I think that those are the moments where you just have to sit back and you just have to really let it get you positively, where you actually notice these moments, because everyone's going at a crazy speed, building their companies, but to let that sink in. I had the founder of Farmgirl Flowers on and she said it was so cute. She said it was the same moment. She was walking on the street, and she was delivering flowers, and then someone was shouting from across the street, same story of like, "Oh my God, Farmgirl Flowers. I love the flowers. It is so great."She just had to pretend. She would have loved to say, "Yes, it's my company. I'm the CEO," but she was just like delivering flowers, so she was all ashamed just like, "Yeah, I love working for them. It's great," and she just kept walking. It's a big moment. As a brand strategist, to me, the most exciting part is once I work with my clients and I do it usually in one day, and at the end of the day, I really want to take the entire brand and describe it in either a two word phrase or just one word of like, if we could actually take a funnel and put all of your brand thinking, the entire Financial Gym with all of its trainers and BFFs and we put them in, what would one word be that could describe the brand?S McLay:Empowerment.F Geyrhalter:Great. Yeah.S McLay:Money is power. There's something so phenomenally, life-changing about getting to watch somebody go from a point of fear and shame around their finances, which is the two words we hear all the time at the gym to truly feeling empowered by their financial situation. It's why I do this every day. It's like a drug.F Geyrhalter:Yeah, it's empowering to you too, right, to get up in the morning and do this, and to everyone of the trainers. Now that we slowly come in to an end, do you have any brand advice for founders as a takeaway? After listening to your journey, I think it's super interesting the way that you did things, and out of your gut instinct, a lot of right decisions were made. Any thoughts for a founder who listens to this and finds your thoughts aspirational?S McLay:Yeah. Just like you were saying, "Trust your gut," because especially if you're the founder of the brand, there's a reason why you founded a brand, right? There's a reason why you had an idea for this company, this product, this solution. So trust that, because like I was saying there were so many times in the branding process, or I have investors and you have employees, you have clients, you have a lot of people who have a lot of opinions about your business. At the end of the day, you really should trust your gut, because it led you there.So yeah, what you said looking back in hindsight we make our decisions, but they all just came from the gut of like, "No, this feels right." Don't let other people try to tell you what's right at the end of the day. It's your business.F Geyrhalter:Determination, right? Yeah.S McLay:Mm-hmm (affirmative).F Geyrhalter:Absolutely. So listeners who fell in love with the gym again, where could they start their financial work out?S McLay:Yeah, so financialgym.com, they can find out more about what we do and sign up for free, warm up call, we call it the work out warm up call. The first call is a free call with, it's actually our clients you talk to. They are not incented to sell you anything. They just want to hear about your journey, what your particular financial challenges or things you want to work on just like a regular gym. We've got clients who want to level up and make more money or invest more. We got clients who want to get out of debt. We have clients who want to learn how to budget. There's all different financial challenges that we work with.Then they pair you with the BFF and yeah, and they can find out more about that. Like you said, we have videos of all of our trainers, and lots of content, they can get to know us. It's really important because we know money is so taboo and personal. We really have probably the softest cell possible for a business, because we're like, "You get comfortable with us first. We're ready for you." Like we talked about that first session getting financially naked, because we know that that's an extremely vulnerable time for people. Most people are sharing their financial numbers for the first time ever to another person. So we understand it's vulnerable. So we're like, "Take your time. Get to know us. We're here. We're ready when you are."F Geyrhalter:That's awesome. Perfect. Well, Shannon, it was so nice having you in the show. I so appreciate your time.S McLay:Thank you. Glad to be here.F Geyrhalter:Absolutely.

Learn more about LIVSupport the show and get on monthly mentorship calls with Fabian. Join here.Full Transcript:F Geyrhalter:Welcome to the show, Esti.E Chazanow:Hi. Thank you for having me.F Geyrhalter:Absolutely. Thank you for making it especially during these times right now. I was so intrigued when I first read about your company, LIV, a Miami-based brand that offers Swiss-made high-quality watches at a fraction of the price we all got used to seeing. We're talking a couple hundred dollars versus thousands or even tens of thousands of dollars. And for all of you listening, go to livwatches.com to get a visual of their impeccable design.So you and your husband are both co-founders but he is the official watch expert, I would say, the brand as a person as we call it, yet I chose to have you on the show because you're also the brand manager. And the big question, just to start this off, how does one set out to break this carefully crafted and, I can only assume, well-guarded system that is the Swiss watch monopoly? How did you get into that? Because you're the underdog coming in, and you're stirring it up quite a bit. How did this all start?E Chazanow:Well, that's a good question. Let me just gather my thoughts for a second. I would say, as you said, my husband is really the watch guy. My husband had been obsessed with watches as a young child and he turned his obsession into a passion slowly through the years. And then as he got older, he wanted to work within the watch industry and he got his first job in a packing room for a Swiss watch brand. And when ecommerce came along, he set up his own website to trade watches online. He was one of the first ecommerce websites for high-end watches. And then after we got married, there was a huge shift in advertising, how the consumer behaves. So we thought that it would be a good time to launch our own brand together, a direct to consumer, no store, online only, super high-quality watches at an accessible price with a focus on what we call the fan, not the customer, but the fan experience. And I can talk a bit more about that in detail later. But I think that because we started with that totally different mindset, we were playing by different rules than them ...F Geyrhalter:Right.E Chazanow:So that took us to an advantage.F Geyrhalter:And so playing by different rules is usually seen-E Chazanow:It's like David and Goliath.F Geyrhalter:Yeah. No, totally. And I just, really, the way that I see it as an outsider, and I lived close to Geneva for a couple of years and so I [inaudible 00:03:01] the entire Swiss watch monopoly, it feels like. It must be extremely difficult to come in with, in the beginning, your watches were a couple hundred dollars. Now you have some that are a little pricier, but to be A, taken seriously, and to even be invited in. I mean, would you or have you even shown up with LIV at one of those snooty international watch fairs to stand your ground? Do you choose not to go down that path at all?E Chazanow:That's a great question. First of all, the funny thing is that we started getting emails from Baselworld the past few years inviting us to come, but we were never interested in going there because that's not our model. It doesn't make sense for us. Besides the fact that I didn't even know where they're up to now. I know at one point ... Well, they obviously canceled for this year. They're having problems of their own and that's part of the huge shift of going down our route. Anyway ...F Geyrhalter:Absolutely. Yeah, you're definitely well-positioned for that right now.E Chazanow:But when you talk about respect, to us, that's really what branding is, because you're talking about how do you get respect? Forget about being in the watch industry, in any industry, to me, that's what branding is, it's about getting respect, being respected as a brand in the industry. Like think about what Apple did. Now, how do you get there is by having a very cohesive brand image. Visuals, communication, product, experience, people respecting the pricing that you set, people seeing the value in the product. Once you have all those pieces together, then you get the respect, and that respect will come within the industry itself as well. Over the years, we've spoken to major watch publications where in the past they would ... We were able to gain that respect because I think we did everything in a very authentic and real way that eventually we actually became a player, in a sense.F Geyrhalter:Right, right. An outlier, but a player in the game. And I really like the idea of respect, because especially for your brand, that was everything. If you didn't gain respect, your brand would have not flourished. So I totally can see that.E Chazanow:And that's actually why when we talk about branding internally, we always are thinking of everything in terms of relationships. just like in a relationship with a spouse, people need to respect each other, People are not going to invest in a brand that they don't respect. Mercedes, Rolex, whatever they did, they did in order to get respect and they did it successfully. We're doing it in a very different way, but that's really our goal.F Geyrhalter:Yeah. And we talked a little bit about the pandemic offline when we did our personal introduction and you talked about watch events and how it changed. Obviously, the pandemic changed so much of our daily routines. I, for instance, have not worn my beautiful TAG Heuer Chronograph ever since I came home from my last flight back from Europe where I was working on some workshops and when I entered the quarantine. So on the one hand, I would think that this unprecedented situation to be followed by a recession might hugely impact any retailer that flirts with anything that's aspirational, like a watch like yours. But on the other hand, LIV may be very well situated, as you hinted at, with being a lower price point, being ecommerce first. How is the brand being affected right now?E Chazanow:Okay. First of all, when you mentioned and we were talking about ... You just mentioned your TAG Heuer Chronograph, and we were talking before about coming up against the big boys. It's so funny, because the other day I was on one of our Amazon products, that's another whole story, Amazon, but we do have some product on Amazon. And I was just scrolling down the page and I noticed, and I immediately sent my husband a screenshot, I noticed that they had now the algorithm had somehow done, how does this product compare to other products, you know how they sometimes have that, that chart?F Geyrhalter:Yeah.E Chazanow:And they had the LIV Swiss watch compared to a TAG Heuer and a Tissot. And I'm like, "Wow."F Geyrhalter:That is amazing.E Chazanow:I'm like, "This is amazing. I cannot believe it."F Geyrhalter:That's your proof point, that's all you needed, right?E Chazanow:Exactly. And in that respect, I would trust Amazon because it's completely based on data that them putting that up there is based on data.F Geyrhalter:Right.E Chazanow:It's not some affiliate putting it up there, it's real. They put it up there because they know.F Geyrhalter:Right. That's pretty amazing.E Chazanow:Yeah. I just had to say that because I thought that was so cool. And to answer your question about the pandemic, we're trying to continue to have a positive outlook. We are situated in a good place in terms of where we are in our brand, in our brand timeline. Just forget about what's going on in the rest of the world. A few years ago, we didn't have so many product offerings. Over time, all the reviews have built up online, the press has built up online, we have a strong online presence. We've done everything online from the beginning, but I'm saying in terms of third-party websites and so on and so forth. So by third-party, I mean press, review websites, and so on. So we were perfectly situated within our brand timeline, we had everything set so that if people are home more, they have more time to do research, there's a lot of information out there about us. So in that respect, it's positive.Uncertainty isn't good for anybody, but at the same time, we are, as you said, much more affordably priced. Well, we like to say accessibly priced. So if someone, for example, wanted to buy a new watch and would normally spend $10,000 on a watch, maybe now they have time to do some research and realize that we might actually be a good investment for a $1500 watch. So there's a lot of different parts, I don't have any data on it, because I haven't done any surveys or anything like that. Some of this is my gut, some of it is talking to fans, and some of it is just knowing where we are as a company and connecting the dots.F Geyrhalter:No. And that's wonderful to hear. And talking about-E Chazanow:And sorry, one other thing is that we're very lucky. In a way, when we first started, I'm not going to lie, I had this dream of getting into Neiman Marcus just because, and still now people are like, now not so much because of what's going on in the world, but even up to right before the pandemic, it's like, "Oh, are you in the department stores?" People were still asking us that.F Geyrhalter:Right.E Chazanow:And I secretly dreamed that I could say yes and now I'm so happy that I can just say, "We're so [inaudible 00:11:39]." And at a certain point I was in touch with buyers at Nordstrom thinking about getting in there but at the time that I was trying to get our product in, we didn't have enough product offering so they weren't interested. And I never tried to go back once we had more product offering because at that point we realized that it made no sense for us.F Geyrhalter:Well, the price point obviously is one of the big differentiators. Of course, the design, too, and the brand story, everything. But every LIV watch is being touched by, I think, 55 hands in the process of being made. These are all Swiss watchmakers. So you are D2C and you forego a ton of advertising spend because of it, but there's still a lot of marketing you have to do, right? You have to create quality content ... You offer free shipping to any country in the world, which is amazing. You're talking on your site that you have fanatical service, et cetera. So how does that financial model work? I know this is all about branding, but I think everyone is intrigued, how can you offer a product of such quality, with kind of the same hands being involved in the process as there may be for a TAG Heuer or for a Rolex or for any other really large brand, how do you cut the fat out of the price for the consumer?E Chazanow:Well, maybe as many hands are touching in the construction and design process, but no hands are touching it once it gets to us, once we're ready to ship. So there's no distribution, no one needs to get a cut all the way down the line. By the time you get that Rolex, think about how many people needed to get a cut for that. So we don't have that. We're going direct to the consumer.F Geyrhalter:It's as simple as that, huh?E Chazanow:It's just direct, and we've cut out everything so we can focus all our resources on, A, making a beautiful product, and B, that relationship with the customer. Well, we don't call them customer, we call them fans. But that's really what we can do. So all that fat is stripped away, and [inaudible 00:14:00] down, and there's no distortion of the brand voice, image, nothing. It's real and authentic.F Geyrhalter:Exactly. It's a beautiful, authentic story, and by you cutting all of these middle man and these distributors and God knows what, all the fancy advertising in Vogue or all of those magazines, and by you not being in Neiman Marcus, those are also stories that real diehard watch collectors actually ache for, because they knew the entire time that they are being screwed over, in a way, so they come with open arms, I'm sure.Let's talk about Kickstarter for a second, because that's a big story for your brand. So you raised, the last time I checked, and I know those numbers must be off now, they must be much higher, but you raised $2.9 million via Kickstarter. Your latest watch on the platform, the P-51 Pilot Titanium Automatic Chronograph, will be at a much higher price point, it's actually a $2000 watch. The campaign had a $30,000 goal, and when I checked last week or so, I'm sure, again, the actual numbers you can correct me on, but it was four days away from ending the campaign, and it had over $1.6 million pledged.This is unheard of. I mean, this is unbelievable. Why is Kickstarter working so insanely well for your brand, and do you have any tips for other entrepreneurs listening on how to fully take advantage of the platform like you guys did?E Chazanow:Yeah, okay, so the platform that the P-51 on which it is currently is our own internal system, but it's the same concept as Kickstarter, and that's where we initially launch everything, that's correct.F Geyrhalter:I see.E Chazanow:So I think, just going back, why do we go to Kickstarter? So the first thing that's really important to understand is that we don't just go because of the funding. There's much more to it than just the funding. The funding is a really great piece, but that's not the only reason. So number one, it forces us to articulate and present this new brand concept and collection, Kickstarter forces you to define it. When you launch on Kickstarter, you have to actually sit down and say ... With our first Kickstarter we had to say, "Why does our brand even need to exist?" And then with every collection, why does this collection need to exist? It sounds so basic, but sometimes you get carried away and you don't stop and think, and Kickstarter forces you to do that as part of the steps in creating a project, so that's number one, which I think is incredible.F Geyrhalter:Absolutely.E Chazanow:Then, the second reason is because if you're able to prove your concept, it enables you to understand what people really want. You're presenting a concept and then you're getting the feedback, and then you're using the feedback to go into production, so you might have had an idea and said, "I'm going to produce this dial in five different colors," but then you go live on Kickstarter and you realize that people actually only like three of the colors, they don't want the other two, so you're not even going to bother producing.F Geyrhalter:It's a focus group, yeah.E Chazanow:Yeah, exactly. And by the way, connecting back to what we talked about with the big brands, think about it. They just go to production, they have no idea. There's no data, they just go to production, and then they might have a huge amount of inventory leftover from a certain production that they just need to get rid of and they need to discount it, so we never bump into those issues, we end up selling every single piece we create, because we go the Kickstarter route.Then, of course, the third reason, going back to why the Kickstarter piece, the third reason of course, I would put it as number three is the funding, and the fourth reason, which is really what we're all about is just being able to start a relationship with people. Many of the people that we started with in the very first Kickstarter continued on our journey, they buy every single watch we come out with. They're our fans, they continue to be a part of our journey. So it's an amazing relationship-builder. But you have to do it right.F Geyrhalter:Absolutely. So many things I want to comment on, but I'm going to restrict myself. So first off, the idea that Kickstarter makes a startup that is not even a brand at that point, that is just an idea, right? If someone goes to Kickstarter and start ... It actually makes you the all-important question to why does this product exist? I think that is so crucial. I mean, that's the work that I do with my client, and they pay me a lot of money and fly me around the world just to answer the question why does it exist and why would people care? Which is so hilarious, in a way, because everyone should know it if they put something out there.But it is, like you said, it is the most difficult question to answer, because this is when we're talking about purpose, this is when we go deeper, this is when we go into what do we really put out in the world? And especially when you have a watch company and you've got, I don't know, like 10, 20, 30, 50 SKUs, why does each one of those exist? I think it is tremendously important to create value in the eyes of the person purchasing it.And I also think it's extremely interesting that you went Kickstarter, because it seems to me that one of the big brand advantages of LIV is that you're really going for the limited edition runs, right? Is every single watch limited?E Chazanow:Now, yes. Well, we do not mass produce anything, that's just not our model. But everything is absolutely limited production, and everything is now, at the beginning we didn't, but now everything is also limited edition.F Geyrhalter:Which is so whip smart to do.E Chazanow:Yeah.F Geyrhalter:And that's why you have your super fans, which I can't believe that statement, that is so amazing, that people literally buy every single model that comes out, and the limited nature, that must be a huge component of why they would want to, because they're collectors. A lot of them must flirt with the idea of potentially reselling at some point.E Chazanow:Yeah, and we notice some of our watches on eBay, and to us, that's so ... And not heavily discounted or anything, like there's already a third market for it, which is awesome. Probably a collector reselling, but people see the value in it, absolutely.F Geyrhalter:That is amazing, right, and that was not something that you initially, most probably thought would happen, but it's a logical progression. And that also makes me wonder, is LIV, which again, for our listeners, it's the same type of watch with the same quality, it's just at a very different price point. But is a LIV, like a Rolex, a LIV, is it turning into a well-regarded status symbol, for many? Because for many, they want to say, "Oh, it's a Rolex," when someone asks. And of course, for your brand, that must have been a little bit of a brand pain point in the beginning, of figuring out, well, how do we not come across as, "Oh, it's a cheap or an inexpensive watch from the internet," right?But right now it is happening, with all of your stories that you're telling online and with really showing how much impeccable work goes into these pieces, and that it is really one to one as far as craftsmanship goes, is it now turning into kind of like a status symbol, are people excited about the outlier in their watch collection, and they actually like to show off, like, "No, this is actually a LIV."E Chazanow:So I think our brand focus, when you say, "You're wearing a LIV," right?F Geyrhalter:Yeah.E Chazanow:When I want someone to say ... What do you think of when you say Rolex? When I say Rolex to you, what do you think of?F Geyrhalter:Well, I mean, I think high quality-E Chazanow:One word.F Geyrhalter:... I think status, I think Swiss-made.E Chazanow:So yeah. I think most people would probably say status. Because you asked me about status, that's why I asked that back to you. But when we want people to think of LIV, we want them to think authentic. We want them to think, "This is authentic, this is real," and that is what we strive for. We're not striving for status, we're striving for authenticity. Because we think that today, in today's world, you can't fool anybody, everybody wants brands to be real with them. People want to invest their money and emotions into something that's authentic.F Geyrhalter:Yeah.E Chazanow:So rather than using the word status, I would use the word authentic. I would say we're not striving for status. If you are authentic, you can get there, and if you have a really beautiful product, that will be a byproduct, but that in itself is not what we're trying to achieve.F Geyrhalter:So maybe status turns into pride, right?it's pride of ownership, I think people have pride of ownership when they have a Rolex, but they can also have pride of ownership when they have a LIV, because they feel smarter. I mean, I think that must be a huge conversation, if you wear a LIV and someone next to you wears a TAG Heuer, like me, like the Austrian jerk who spent the money, and I'm sure it's an interesting conversation of like, "Well how much did you spend on this? Well did you know that my watch," and then they can rattle off all the details of how it is made and how precise it is, and I think it must be a really interesting conversation, and I'm sure that's happening online all the time now.E Chazanow:I really like how you said that, exactly. They're proud, they are. They're proud, and they're on a journey with us, and they're proud to be part of that journey. And again, it comes down to authenticity, because we really do have an authentic relationship, and they grew with us as a family. The brand grew, and as we grew our family as well. At ne point it was just my husband and myself working in the office, and we hd just done a Kickstarter, and I was due to have our third child, and the baby came three months early and we were not prepared, because I was doing all the responses to the fans, I was the one managing the whole fan experience, we didn't have anyone working for us at the time. So I actually had to write a message to all of them, and say, "I just want to let you know, I just had a preemie." Thank Gd, he's totally fine right now, and it was hard to write that email, because it's a very personal thing, but it felt natural, because these people were part of our lives, and they still are.And I cannot even tell you how many messages I got back and say, "Don't worry, my son is a preemie, I was a preemie," and it just helped ferment that relationship and it made it feel so real, and until this day I feel that relationship with our fans, even though maybe I'm not responding to every single message now, I'm still very involved, but obviously you have to scale and grow. But yeah, that's, I don't know how I got to that point [crosstalk 00:26:37].F Geyrhalter:Well, it's an important point, because I think we were talking a little bit about the brand's growth. But I think, to me, that is so crucial, because a lot of people that I interview, especially female founders and female co-founders, I talked to Jeni of Jeni's Ice Cream, I talked to Christina Stembel of Farmgirl Flowers, and all of them, it is, in the beginning, it is their determination, obviously, as a founder, because it takes a lot of that, and a lot of the grit and hustle, but a lot of it is just being 100% you, right? And sharing the journey and sharing not only the hits but also the misses, and I think that is such a huge change, and that's why a lot of people, when they ask me, "Oh, you're working with startups and corporations on branding and marketing, and isn't it all fake and stuff?" And I'm like, "Absolutely not."The way that corporations are being built now and brands are being built now is so much different than it used to be, and sending out this email talking about something that I don't believe anything can be much more personal than that. From the get-go it creates that sense of realness, something that every other big brand wants to be, right? Coca-Cola and all these big, kind of legacy brands, they all want to be your friend, they want to have a spot on your Instagram and Facebook, but we rarely allow them to because it doesn't feel authentic. But when a brand like yours pops up and people know the story and people know the founder's names, especially in the beginning, it's huge, money can't buy that. That just completely changed with D2C brands and with the startup movement of the last 10, 15 years, and I'm just so happy to hear that every time someone says that.E Chazanow:Yeah, it really is an incredible time for creativity, for quality, just for producing something real, I think it is an incredible time. There's a lot of fluff out there as well, but if you're real, then it's an incredible time. And then to the point of what some of the legacy brands are trying to do, I don't know, is it Alpina or Alpina, the watch company?F Geyrhalter:I do not know how you pronounce it either, but I saw it, I have the visual in front of me, yeah.E Chazanow:They went on Kickstarter after us.F Geyrhalter:Wow.E Chazanow:Yeah. When we saw them on Kickstarter, we were like, "What?" But I guess they saw the value in it. I'm not sure if it worked as ... It would be hard to integrate that model once you're already a legacy brand.F Geyrhalter:That's what I think, too. And talking about authenticity, that might not feel authentic at that point, because you've already gone a certain path.E Chazanow:Yeah, exactly. And people often ask us, "With your Kickstarter campaign, did you do it yourself or did you hire a company to do it?" And I always say, "Even if I would've had all the money in the world, I wouldn't pay someone to do that. You've got to do it on your own, you've got to be authentic." And especially when we first launched, the whole concept of fan experience, where the person's not just a customer doing a transaction but actually a fan, it was not very prevalent. People didn't even understand the language and concept, and as we grow we want to continue to be authentic, and so that's why we continue to do it on our own. We're not going to outsource that. We want to keep our watches affordable, agencies take a lot of money, so we'll continue to do that on our own, often people are asking us that.So I'm sure that the Alpina or Alpina, however you pronounce it, how could you ever be as authentic if it's just not like that? It's just ...F Geyrhalter:So how big is your micro brand now? You must've grown, how bit is the team?E Chazanow:It's very lean. We have a couple people in our office in Miami. I always thank them every year as we grow larger and larger, I say, "Thank God you guys are here, because if it was still my husband and I in that tiny office, one of us would have killed the other one." So yeah, thank God we've grown, for many reasons. And then we just very smart about everything. Often when you hear founders talking, especially some of the bigger companies, you listen to some of those podcasts, they talk about skill stack, and I think that my husband and I are really lucky to be working together, and we just have a really good combined ... As people alone, I don't know we would have enough of a skill stack to do this, but as a combined unit, we're really able to do a lot of things on our own and keep a really lean team, so we're able to continue to do the pricing that we're doing, because we're able to do a lot of things. He's always been really good at the production side of things, at the marketing piece, the messaging.And my background had nothing to do with watches, I came from an education nonprofit, organizational management background. Very, very different, but from the very beginning we've really made a focus on education, education, education. So we focus a lot on our stories, on our blog, and on our emails on just educating people. So I think together, and that's why we figured we'd be able to do this, is that together we were able to have the skill stack to keep a lean team and keep the pricing accessible, and just do things, we really try to do everything smartly and creatively.F Geyrhalter:Absolutely. And I do feel that with a brand like yours, branding, you and I can both agree because we're both in the field, but branding must've been extremely important, because you're a younger, bolder, version of some of those big brand alternatives, but yet you're the incumbent, so you first had to create a little bit of the same expected Swiss watch aura of precision and exploration with the detailed watch charts and the aspirational models wearing them, but then you kind of pivoted. How did you create the brand's look and feel and the tonality? I mean it seems like a lot of it was very, talking about authenticity in a small team, very much, must have been very organic and natural, but you also received a lot of feedback through Kickstarter, through your fans. How did you shape your brand's look? Was it all internal? How did you do that?E Chazanow:That's a good question. So the initial logo, we had a designer that we knew, and the initial logo we had, we kind of developed, my husband and myself and this one designer. But that was literally just a logo and a name, that was it. It was nothing. And then once we had the concept, as I said, we like to do things smartly and creatively, and I always say my husband has really ... He's very creative, he has really good ideas. And then I call myself the chief implementation officer, because I'm better on the implementation side. So he had this idea of, why not create something called the LIV Design Challenge, and invite designers to ... We created a design brief, we have this concept, but we want to create this brand and we want the brand to be bold, and some of the things that you just mentioned, and we want to create a watch, and our first watch we want to have this movement in it. We gave details, because my husband knew the production side, obviously, and then we went on these portfolio websites and just invited designers to participate.We handpicked hundreds of people who we saw had designed precision items, product designers, and we invited them to partake in a challenge, and that's how we got our watch designs.F Geyrhalter:Wow.E Chazanow:We rewarded them, obviously.F Geyrhalter:Yeah. That is amazing. So it's pretty crowdsourced. So the initial watch designs were crowdsourced.E Chazanow:And even ones that we launched a few years later, not just the initial ones, but they were also, basically any new watch design that we have that's not from the ... So so far we have the GX collection and the Rebel collection, those were both winning designs, and then we kind of created multiple versions of those original designs, and we work with, some of the time we work with the original designer who had won the contest to develop the collections.F Geyrhalter:That is unbelievable. I mean, try that with a traditional watch company, right?E Chazanow:Yeah. And that itself is a huge job. Again, you can have the concept, but then you've got to have the skill stack to be able to implement that.F Geyrhalter:Oh, absolutely. Yeah. How did the name come about, was it the same? Or was the name already always there and you thought about the idea of living your life and being bold and LIV, I assume that's where it would come from.E Chazanow:Yeah, we had a concept that we wanted to create this direct to fan experience, brand, we wanted to have direct relationships with people, we wanted it to be something built around the concept of living life to the fullest. So when I envision the brand, and when I had listened to ... I had read up a bit, because my background was not in branding, so I kind of had to self-learn it. I realized that if we were going to do this successfully, we needed to build it around a persona, and I wanted that persona to be my husband, because he's a very adventurous, he loves quality items, he really represents someone who would appreciate the watch. So we built it around his persona. A lot of the imagery is with him, actually. He also makes an okay model.F Geyrhalter:Good for you.E Chazanow:We can add that to his skillset, and that helps keep the costs down. Yeah, so we built it around his personality, really.F Geyrhalter:That makes it so much easier in the beginning, right?E Chazanow:Yeah, absolutely. It makes it easier, you're able to keep the concept very defined, and like I said, you can use him as a model as well, so that helped.F Geyrhalter:And it's family pride, right? So when I prepped for our interview, and I have to bring this up, I went through LIV's Instagram account to get a sense of the brand, because that's what you do today. These days, it's not going to the website. You first go to Instagram, you get a really good idea of what's now, what's happening. And I was just about to call the interview off when I saw your line of LIV wall clocks. Wall clocks, okay, which literally are the wristwatches hung on the wall, just the watch, not the strap, they looked horrendous. And sure enough, I realized it was posted on April Fool's, and I was so relieved. I looked at it and I'm like, "Oh my God, what are these people doing?" It was just so hilarious.E Chazanow:Oh, that's funny.F Geyrhalter:Yeah, that was so good. And Swatch was able to pull that off in the '80s, do you remember that? The big Swatch watches, they go like for $500 now online, which is pretty funny.E Chazanow:I need to tell that to my team.F Geyrhalter:I'm like, "I don't know if I want to have these people on my show." Well, but was there, even though you're pretty religious about data and customer feedback, and even crowdsourcing and letting people's voice be heard within your product and how you offer it, was there some brand fail that you went through where you felt like, "Oh my God, we just totally missed." It wasn't the wall clock, obviously, that was an April Fool's, but was there something that you did where afterwards you felt like, "You know what? That goes into a chapter where we failed forwards, for sure."E Chazanow:That's a really good question. We did make a lot of small mistakes, we corrected them. I think the key to any brand's success is to realize your mistakes early enough, obviously, to be able to make the changes. But I think a brand like ours can never afford to make an enormous mistake. If we would've made an enormous mistake, we would not exist now. So you have to get it right. You're not going to get it right every time, because then you're not going to take any risk, but you can't make an enormous mistake.Now, I've got to say, there is an element of luck involved. How would you know that the first design, we thought it was beautiful, but how would we know that $200,000 worth of funding would think it was beautiful? So I do think there's an element of luck in it, I really do. But the element of luck is built upon you having the right mindset, the right goals, the authenticity piece, all of that together, yep.F Geyrhalter:Well, and luck goes hand in hand with a lot of really, really hard work.This is the big question. What does branding mean to you?E Chazanow:It's really what I mentioned before, the cohesion of the brand image. It's a lot of different pieces being cohesive, and then ... So the brand image, the visuals, the communication, the product, the experience, the cohesion of all of that, and then people being able to just respect that, whatever messaging that is, that is cohesive and consistent.F Geyrhalter:And I love that you brought up the respect part again, because that is a very unusual way of seeing the role of branding, and I think it is really, really great that you crystallized it. This is a question that I ask every single founder on my show. If you take every single piece of communication and every single piece of your brand's purpose and your vision and your mission, and you would be able to just put it in a funnel and out comes one word or two words, what would that word be for your brand, if you would have to describe it in one word? I know we heard things like boldness and authenticity. Is that what it would be, authenticity, or is there something else?E Chazanow:Authentic, yeah.F Geyrhalter:See, I did my espionage.E Chazanow:Well done.F Geyrhalter:I knew that's what it would be.E Chazanow:Absolutely. Well, then we're doing a good job, if you could figure that out.F Geyrhalter:We are, right? We're making progress. Do you have any final piece of brand advice for founders? You've just been through an extremely amazing journey building a Swiss watch brand out of the US that is competing with a lot of the big names now and is striving, is there anything that you learned where you just figured, "That's one thing that I definitely need every entrepreneur to hear."E Chazanow:Okay, so I know this is going to sound extremely cliché, but when everyone tells you that you cannot do something, you know that you're doing the right thing.F Geyrhalter:I love that. I hear it over and over again, and it's so important.E Chazanow:[crosstalk 00:44:51] and it's true.F Geyrhalter:It is so important to hear it over again, right? That determination and that grit and that hustle, really, that's what makes a founder a founder, a succeeding founder, absolutely. So listeners who fell in love with your brand just now and they just found out about it here, where can they find LIV online?E Chazanow:Yep, they can go to livewatches.com, L-I-Vwatches.com. We're also, as you said, on I guess, Facebook, @livwatches. Yeah, come join our journey, check out what we're doing. We do find that a lot of people who follow us are small business owners, entrepreneurs, people who really appreciate the time and effort that's going into it, we see that so much. So if you're one of those people, I think you'll really appreciate what we have to offer.F Geyrhalter:Absolutely. I can start hearing that your kids are getting a little more antsy in the background, so we will let you go now. But thank you, Esti, for having been on the show. We so appreciate your time and your insights.E Chazanow:Thank you, thank you, thank you. It was really nice chatting. Thank you for the opportunity, it was really an interesting conversation for me as well. 

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

Farmgirl Flowers founder (and friend of the show) Christina Stembel returns to share how she navigated difficult emotions and impossible decisions during the early days of the Covid-19 crisis, as she tried to save the startup that she spent 10 years building. Plus, Zibby Owens, creator of the podcast, “Moms Don't Have Time To Read,” helps us broaden our reading horizons during lockdown.

Christina Stembel joins Brian to discuss what the last few months has looked like from a CEO and owner of a "nonessential" business's perspective.

Farmgirl Flowers CEO and founder Christina Stembel joins Aaron in-studio to talk about how she built the world's largest e-commerce flower arrangement business. Aaron and Christina discuss the challenges of being a woman in a male-dominated industry, the importance of supporting farms who pay living wages, and how to trust your instincts in a leadership position. Tune in to learn how this floral business flourished, and learn more at farmgirlflowers.com.   Production Credits: Aaron Kwittken, Jeff Maldonado, Dara Cothran, Lindsay Hand, Katrina Waelchli, Meg Ruocco, Julia Brougher, Parker Jenkins, and Mathew Passy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

My guest today is Christina Stembel, the founder and CEO of Farmgirl Flowers. She launched Farmgirl Flowers, an online flower delivery company, from her tiny San Francisco apartment. Over the past nine years, she has bootstrapped the company to over 150 team members with an annual revenue of over $30M. During our chat, Christina shares how she almost ran out of money during her first two years of business; how cash flow is still a struggle today due to large expenses; her grassroots and lean marketing strategy and how her customers have expressed loving the company's transparency even more than their beautiful, signature aesthetic.

Christina Stembel's origin story for her business, Farmgirl Flowers, is amazing: She launched her floral business with nothing more than a high school degree and $50K in savings. Over the past decade, she's bootstrapped the company to a team of over 200 employees with an annual revenue of over $30M. This week on Girlboss Radio, we hear from Christina on how she taught herself to become an entrepreneur, the benefits and drawbacks of being self-funded, and how she combats the loneliness that comes with being an entrepreneur. Tune in for plenty of wisdom, wherever you listen to podcasts.

Christina Stembel's origin story for her business, Farmgirl Flowers, is amazing: She launched her floral business with nothing more than a high school degree and $50K in savings. Over the past decade, she's bootstrapped the company to a team of over 200 employees with an annual revenue of over $30M. This week on Girlboss Radio, we hear from Christina on how she taught herself to become an entrepreneur, the benefits and drawbacks of being self-funded, and how she combats the loneliness that comes with being an entrepreneur. Tune in for plenty of wisdom, wherever you listen to podcasts. Sign up for the Girlboss Daily to receive tips on work, life, and how to chase (and reach!) your dreams: https://bit.ly/30A14AL Have feedback on the show? Email us at radio@girlboss.com

Today we have Christina Stembel, the founder and CEO of Farmgirl Flowers, joining us. After years of trying to raise capital, Christina realized that the only way she could retain the integrity of her business vision was to bootstrap the company – and it paid off in a big way. Being a female founder, she came up against the many implicit biases around women-owned businesses and failed to get the investments many other male-owned companies pulled off without showing any results. Today, Christina has the only female-owned large-scale e-commerce B2C flower company and made a remarkable $32 million in revenue last year. She talks about her business philosophy of high-quality, being entirely self-taught, how she saves on marketing, establishing a healthy company culture, leadership, and her secrets to building a superstar team.  TIME-STAMPED SHOW NOTES: [00:41] Before we jump into today’s interview, please rate, review, and subscribe to the Leveling Up Podcast![00:35] The origins of Farmgirl Flowers as a business, not a passion project.[01:33] Using the In-N-Out Burger business model and applying it to the flower industry.[02:12] The philosophy of doing something simple with excellence while reducing waste.[02:39] Almost running out of money a year and a half in and deciding to bootstrap.[02:50] Nine years later, 165 employees, and finishing 2019 with over $32 million in revenue. [03:15] The investment offers they have had being situated in Silicon Valley.[03:20] Actively trying to raise capital for three years and why she turned down three offers. [03:59] Not compromising but building the healthy, sustainable company she envisioned.  [04:31] The implicit biases she encountered as a female owner trying to raise capital. [05:03] Being the only female-owned large-scale e-commerce B2C flower company.[05:46] Not fitting the model for most VCs with a perishable product and small margins.[06:38] Higher quality at higher price points and other ways Farmgirl Flowers makes money.[08:05] The benefit of not having to spend what competitors do on marketing.[09:49] Christina’s self-taught knowledge about flowers, logistics, and distribution.[10:05] Working at Stanford University as the head of catering and how that prepared her. [11:09] Taking five and a half years to afford and get national shipping off the ground.[12:36] Their goal of opening two distribution centers and another one in 2021.[13:31] How Christina has learned to be a better leader and the mistakes she initially made.[14:24] Spending at least 20% of her time on her team and building the right culture.[15:08] The irony of being told that she is “unfundable” because she doesn’t have a team. [16:12] Building a superstar team by hiring people that no one else would believe in. [17:12] Learning about vulnerability as a leader from Brené Brown. [18:13] The importance of being thoughtful and strategic about business growth.  Resources From The Interview: Christina Stembel on LinkedIn Farmgirl Flowers In-N-Out Burger Kevin O’Leary on Women-Led Businesses Brené Brown  Katrina Lake on LinkedIn Stitch Fix Must-read book: Anything by Brené Brown!     Leave Some Feedback:   What should I talk about next? Who should I interview? Please let me know on Twitter or in the comments below. Did you enjoy this episode? If so, please leave a short review here Subscribe to Leveling Up on iTunes Get the non-iTunes RSS Feed   Connect with Eric Siu:    Growth Everywhere Single Grain Eric Siu on Twitter  

Farmgirl Flowers, an e-commerce floral shop, was disrupted by recreational cannabis legalization in her company's home state of California. After the legalization vote, many of the local suppliers she'd once leaned on to provide the flowers that made up her bouquets were suddenly turning to a new crop.

Order flowers the right way and get them the way it's advertised. Tune into this episode to learn more about Christina Stembel's business, Farmgirl Flowers.  Stay in touch and learn about the latest episodes by subscribing to The Veranda Entrepreneur Podcast! Learn more at .  

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

Welcome to the second half of our very enthusiastic, mildly frantic gift guide! If you’re still trying to track down something for that cool teen ya know, your nana, or anyone who demands practicality, we’ve got you. And hit up last week’s ep if you need more ideas, too. While we’re here, two reminders: 1) Donations are great gifts. 2) Don’t buy junk!!    The linkage:   For teens: Japanese watercolor markers, luggage (check out North Face rolling duffles, Baggu weekenders, and Herschel carry-ons), Olive & June nail polish or manicure kit, gift cert for Nike by You or Miadidas, Katie Kimmel hats/tees/bags, or Ban.do swag   For an eight-month-old baby: Donation to National Diaper Bank Network or RAICES Texas, an ornament (start a tradition!), Lovevery play kit or subscription, or Artifact Uprising board book   For nieces, ages seven and one: Dumye dolls and doll-making kit, Entireworld sweatsuits, Fanny at Chez Panisse cookbook, book-club subscription (Books Are Magic does YA, middle grade, and picture books, and The Picture Book Club customizes the picks), personalized Radio Flyer wagon/scooter/bike, or Crate & Barrel playhouse   For a 94-year-old grandmother: Storycorps recording or flower subscription—we are into Bouqs, Farmgirl Flowers, and Flowers for Dreams   For couples (how ‘bout under $50?): W&P Games or Wolfum backgammon or domino sets (though the latter are a little more $), a restaurant gift cert, or a hotel gift cert (think: Mr. & Mrs. Smith, Airbnb, etc.)   For in-laws: FOOOOOOD. Goldbelly and Mouth are good resources, and we also feel strongly about Alioto-Lazio Fish Company crabs, Zingerman’s clubs for bacon or coffee cake or olive oil, Sqirl jams, Russ & Daughters smoked fish, Joe’s Stone Crab crab claws, and Jeni’s ice cream.   For best girlfriends (under $50!): Massage brush, fancy brush/comb, The Floral Society Edible Seed Kit, Hortense black friendship bracelet with pearl beads, Sunnies Face Fluffmatte lipstick, Hawkins candlesticks, or Boy Smells candle set   For people who value utility over luxury: Shhhowercap, Food52 cutting board (or anything from their Five Two line, really), Thermapen, a booklamp (Wirecutter has a pick), Google Home Mini, mini steamer, Dyson stick vac, Joseph Joseph kitchen scale, Muji travel neck pillow, Uniqlo HeatTech, or Benriner mandoline   For stockings: Noto Botanics lip and cheek stains, Baggu reusable bags, Hibi matches, Le Pen set, Clary balm, MT washi tape, cool postage stamps (these, these, these!), Stasher bags, Stojo cup, Acuballs, Moglea and Society6 phone cases, Helen Levi salt and pepper shakers, or Wit & Delight portable phone chargers   For a nanny or caregiver: Slippers (maybe Ugg or Ariana Bohling?), Zeel or Soothe in-home massage, or AMC gift card   For a Peorian pharmacist named Bob: Gift cert to Bushwacker (fave local store!) or to The Aviary/The Office in Chicago or tickets to see The Book of Mormon at the Peoria Civic Center in January   Try Cove if you get migraines—and get a month of meds for free. Grab the InfinitiPRO by Conair Texture Styling Hair Dryer. Give Acuity Scheduling a go with 45 days totally free. YAY.   Produced by Dear Media

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.

Christina Stembel, founder of Farmgirl Flowers, knew she wanted to build a big company. So when she saw that flowers were the last undisrupted industry in Silicon Valley, she seized the opportunity. Nine years later, her fully self-funded company is generating $34 million… and counting. On GlambitionRadio.com, Christina shares how she built her company—the only direct-to-consumer floral company owned by a woman (despite women being the majority of flower consumers). Before Farmgirl Flowers, no one had innovated in the industry since the ’90s…and it was easy to tell. The post Christina Stembel, Founder + CEO of Farmgirl Flowers— Glambition® Radio Episode 186 with Ali Brown
 appeared first on Ali Brown - the world's most recognized business coach for women entrepreneurs, leadership, speaker, and founder of The Trust..

On today's episode of Gritty Founder, Kreig Kent talks with Christina Stembel about how she built and grew Farmgirl Flowers. Christina shares terrific advice on bootstrapping a company, marketing your business in the early days, and the work ethic needed to be successful. She is the founder & CEO of Farmgirl Flowers. She used every penny she had to bootstrap her successful floral empire. Experiencing 50% year over year growth, the 9-year old brand has been self-funded since day one. You are about to listen to an inspiring American success story. Some Questions Kreig asks Christina: - Do you remember getting your first customer? (23:34) - What was the process like for hiring your first employee? (29:37) - Did you ever think of quitting? (31:14) - If you could go back in time, what advice would you give yourself? (36:49) In This Episode, You Will Learn: - About Christina's background and how she became an entrepreneur (4:26) - Christina's experience trying to raise venture capital (10:51) - How Christina started Farmgirl Flowers (14:55) - How Christina marketed Farmgirl Flowers when she was just starting out (24:59) - Don't care about what people think of you (36:58) - The future or Farmgirl Flowers (41:09) - The difficulty of selling perishable items (41:41) - Success doesn't have to equal venture capital funding (44:34) Connect with Christina Stembel: LinkedIn Farmgirl Flowers Also Mentioned on This Show... Christina’s favorite quote: “Woman in the arena.” Christina’s book recommendation: Braving the Wilderness by Brené Brown

Christina Stembel entered the $3B online flower industry with no experience and very little money. With a dream to innovate on how business was done, she came up with a unique model that eventually led to Farmgirl Flowers’ $23.4M in revenue last year. Visit https://www.leadquizzes.com/podcast for the complete show notes of every podcast episode.   Topics Discussed in this Episode: [01:48] What gave Christina the idea of going into the flower business [03:37] Some of the things that Christina saw with the major players in the online flower market that made her think she could come in and stand out [05:56] How Christina came up with Farmgirl Flowers’ unique business model [06:49] How they tackled the problem of “waste” in the flower industry [09:27] What they did to make their bouquet pieces different from the competition [10:47] How Christina started Farmgirl Flowers with her personal savings and how she got it launched off the ground [12:49] What their first year in business looked like [14:24] How they started marketing in their first year [16:25] How they built their customer base by utilizing customer feedback [19:42] The different ways they get customer feedback [20:57] How they started doing advertising in years three and four and their strategy of pushing it through Yelp [23:30] Christina’s first hire and what she brought them in to do [26:47] Farmgirl Flowers’ supply chain, how they decided to get their sourcing, and how it evolved over time [30:39] The challenge of supporting American growers and why they eventually decided to get international sourcing [35:06] How much people cared about the idea of supporting American growers [36:38] The one thing that Christina did that had the biggest impact on Farmgirl Flowers’ growth [38:24] How Christina made sure she hired the right person. [39:05] The area that Christina personally had to grow in as a business owner to get to where she is today   Key Takeaways: In previous generations, people would hide behind the fact that it’s the thought that counts, but it’s not the thought that counts with younger people. If they’re going to spend $80 to $100 of their hard-earned money on a bouquet of flowers, it better be worth that much. Flowers have a very rough perishability time period, even more so than food. If you’re in the flower business, you can’t make a mistake. You have about three days to use those flowers before you have to dump them. 79% of the people that buy flowers are women buying for women. It’s the actual marketing spend that’s going to drive your growth. If you are spending on people managing that spend, that’s money you could be actually spending on the spend. You need as much money to get in front of people as you can. Parenting books are wonderful for managing people.   Action Steps: Get customer feedback and use it to make the necessary changes to create the best product offering that would allow you to meet your business goals. Find the platform that everybody else is using for advertising and put your money there. Become a good leader and manage your people well. Put a lot of emphasis on team culture early into your business.   Christina said: “The industry is very old school. It’s ancient. Most of the American farmers are second or third generation and they’ve been doing things in certain ways. And getting them to break that, the system that they’ve been set up for and doing things for multiple generations is not easy.” “Every dollar that I can spend, putting it back into marketing, is what’s going to help keep fueling our growth.”   More from Christina Stembel: Farmgirl Flowers’ Website Farmgirl Flowers’ Facebook Farmgirl Flowers’ Instagram (@farmgirlflowers) Christina’s LinkedIn   Tools and resources mentioned in this episode: The Culture Code: The Secrets of Highly Successful Groups by Daniel Coyle Books written by Brene Brown How to Raise an Adult: Break Free of the Overparenting Trap and Prepare Your Kid for Success by Julie Lythcott-Haims   Sponsor link 14-day Free Trial to LeadQuizzes   Thank you for listening! If you enjoyed this episode, subscribe to this podcast! And don’t forget to leave me a rating and a review on iTunes!

Christina Stembel started Farmgirl Flowers to improve the way the commercial flower industry offers choice, quality, and price. Today she’s at the helm of a growing company that serves flower lovers nationwide.

Founder & CEO of Farmgirl Flowers: “Don’t lead out of fear.” Christina Stembel is the founder & CEO of Farmgirl Flowers, an e-commerce flower retailer that prioritizes quality and in-house production over quantity and waste. On a mission to start her own company, Christina bootstrapped Farmgirl Flowers from the $49,000 in her savings account to a company that generates over $23,000,000 in annual revenue. In this episode, Christina talks about the challenges of pitching to a room of full of men, the importance of cultivating a positive team culture, and what you can learn from In-N-Out Burger's business model. If you're interested in career opportunities at Farmgirl Flowers, click here: https://farmgirlflowers.com/jointheteam

Christina is the founder of Farmgirl Flowers, a $23M company that's reinventing the floral industry's business model to eliminate waste and elevate the customer experience. Top 3 Value Bombs: 1. You should identify what problem you are solving and what you want your company to do. 2. It is important to have a team that appreciates the transparency within the company and a team that will get through everything with you. 3. Know your KPI’s and know your numbers. Check out Christina’s Website - FarmGirlFlowers Sponsor:  ZipRecruiter: When it comes to hiring, you can save time and get more qualified candidates fast with ZipRecruiter. And right now, you can try ZipRecruiter for free at ZipRecruiter.com/fire! ZipRecruiter. The smartest way to hire. ClickFunnels: Ready to build your first sales funnel without having to hire an entire tech team to help? With ClickFunnels, you can! Visit EOFire.com/click to start your free 14-day trial today!

Christina Stembel is the founder & CEO of Farmgirl Flowers, an e-commerce flower retailer that prioritizes quality and in-house production over quantity and waste. On a mission to start her own company, Christina bootstrapped Farmgirl Flowers from the $49,000 in her savings account to a company that generates over $23,000,000 in annual revenue. In this episode, Christina talks about the challenges of pitching to a room of full of men, the importance of cultivating a positive team culture, and what you can learn from In-N-Out Burger's business model. If you're interested in career opportunities at Farmgirl Flowers, click here: https://farmgirlflowers.com/jointheteam

We’ll address the big question first: Christina Stembel of Farmgirl Flowers really did grow up on a farm. Growing up in northern Indiana, Christina was expected to fulfill her womanly duties as a wife and mother while her brother went off to college. But Christina had other plans. She hightailed it to New York within two weeks of graduating from high school and started working. Christina did not grow up with a lot of people cheering her on and wishing her success, and that made her strive for it all the more. Over some years and many different ideas, she saw that the floral industry held an opportunity to do exactly what she desired in starting her own business: disrupt the status quo, create scalability, and do good in the world. While not without its challenges (who knew the floral industry could be so cutthroat?), Christina has scaled from 56K her first year of business to $31 million 8 years later. As Christina fondly says, success is the best revenge. (In partnership with Capital One Spark Business) Thanks for listening! We love our listeners! Drop us a line or give us guest suggestions here, or visit https://anchor.fm/superwomen/messages on your desktop or phone to leave us a voice memo! Follow Superwomen on Instagram. Big Ideas Less than 3% of women get funding from venture capital. Discussing the disparity in capital support between male and female founders. [09:36] The value in trusting your instincts. [32:00] --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/superwomen/support

Ever have an underwhelming experience ordering flowers online? I’ve had many and our guest today became committed to fixing that problem and has created a multimillion dollar business. Christina Stembel knew she always wanted to start a company, living in San Francisco where it seems like everyone has a successful startup. She was constantly brainstorming ways to disrupt old industries.  Eventually, she found herself with a million-dollar idea. Flower delivery. It was a rough start, unable to raise any money, Christina bootstrapped her company, starting with $49,000 in savings. Thanks to her drive and determination, she was able to weather the trying times, and there were many, to grow Farmgirl Flowers into a 23-million-dollar business. That’s how much they made last year in revenue; $23 million from flowers and Christina has her sights set on growing this to a billion-dollar company. 

Originally from Indiana, Christina Stembel found herself in Silicon Valley where it seemed everyone was an entrepreneur. It was while investigating why flowers are so expensive for her employer at the time, Christina started to see potential big bucks in the flower industry. Today, Christina shares all of her tips and transparent insights on how she grew Farmgirl Flowers from nothing to an estimated projected 30M this year. "I wanted to take an industry and be either the first innovator or the first one doing it a completely different way.” - Christina Stembel. Learn more at joychudacoff.com/81

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. 

This week on Inc. Uncensored, writers and editors discuss Inc.'s Best Workplaces feature. Plus, they talk about why Chicago is a hot spot for entrepreneurs and an interview with Christina Stembel, the founder of Farmgirl Flowers.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this episode of Gamechangers, Savannah talks to Christina Stembel of Farmgirl Flowers, the direct to consumer e-commerce site offering the most gorgeous floral arrangements in the online gift space. Christina talks about how she grew her company from her 100 square foot living room to a 30,000 square foot warehouse and a team of 100+ people. She talks about creating an idea that would have the potential to scale big, launching her company in the most expensive city in the US, and how listening to her customers through focus groups has led to some big returns on investments. She talks about the power of digital marketing to acquire new customers and how that contributed to the $23 million she did in sales last year. Enjoy! Follow along for more insider info, community resources, tips & tricks and work/life inspiration: Join our Facebook Group: “The Gamechangers Mastermind” Follow along on Instagram: @savannahhayesstudio Check out the Shownotes: savannahhayes.com/gamechangers

Learn how bootstrapped startup Farmgirl Flowers grew from a local outfit to national household name for flower delivery. Plus, headlines from PayPal, Mejuri, Lululemon, and more.

You'll love Christina Stembel's transparency about what it is like to be the founder and CEO of Farmgirl Flowers, her entrepreneurial journey and much more. "Growing up in the farm environment, I was taught that if we don't have the money, we don't spend it - which has really helped me in growing a business." - Christina Stembel. Learn more about this episode at karagoldin.com/24

In our very first episode, we are so excited to bring you a live recording of our launch event - She's Thriving: What Wellness Really Looks Like for Women in 2019 & Beyond. This panel event was held in San Francisco, CA at The Wing on Saturday February 2, 2019. Our amazing panelists included SoulCycle Instructor and She's Thriving co-founder, Molli Sullivan (@molli.sullivan); licensed psychotherapist supporting ambitious women in navigating life transitions with authenticity, grace and vitality and co-founder the SF based holistic group practice HAVN, Kat Dahlen (@therapywithkat); co-founder of Seldom Seen, a San Franciscan run boutique that brings a unique and inclusive approach to fashion centered on an experience that begins with community, Natasha Wong (natasha.k.wong); and founder of NDN and co-founder of Sitting Matters, a wellness and lifestyle expert combining her backgrounds in neuroscience, dance, nutrition and fashion to create a mindful and creative space for group and individual consulting, coaching and content creation, Nkechi Njaka (@ndnlifestylist). The panel was moderated by Senior SoulCycle Instructor and She's Thriving co-founder, MK Hurlbutt (@mkhurlbutt). We would like to send a special thanks to all of our AMAZING partners who made the event possible: SoulCycle, The Wing, bkr, Curie natural deodorant, Drunk Elephant, Urban Remedy, SF Salt Company, La Casa de las Madres, Praise Photography, Farmgirl Flowers, Apres, and Lululemon.  Use code WING20 for 20% off orders from Apres and code ShesThriving15 for 15% off orders from Farmgirl Flowers. Be sure to subscribe and share!

Christina Stembel is from a small town in Indiana. She's now the CEO and Founder of Farmgirl Flowers - a popular flower company that gained notoriety as part of the 'Instagram generation' of brands. But Christina's story isn't very typical of Silicon Valley - she completely debunks typical Founder mythology. We talk to Christina about the start to her career, which was in the hospitality industry. If you've ever stayed at a hotel, or plan on doing it in the future, you'll want to know the inner-workings from Christina. We talk about staying at hotels versus staying at Airbnbs, and what the nicest places to stay in San Francisco are. Christina talks about why she originally moved to San Francisco (for love), but what made her stay. She spends some time debunking Founder mythology in Silicon Valley - that you need to be passionate in order to start a company. Christina shares some shocking facts about flowers that you weren't aware of. This is a great episode.

Join Dee and Carol as they discuss how to care for cut flowers and flower arrangements so they last well beyond the holidays, what veggies they are eating at Christmas time, and how to deal with stress by gardening.With a shout out to Farmgirl Flowers!Merry Christmas from Dee and Carol and thank you for listening to our podcast!

Christina Stemble is the founder of Farmgirl Flowers, which she started 7 years ago from her living room table. She invested $49,000 of her personal savings to start the business and Farm Girl Flowers is projected to hit $23M in revenue for 2018.     Christina disrupted the floral industry with new options for consumers, less waste and higher quality products. Farmgirl Flower arrangements are designed by hand, in-house in San Francisco California.   On today’s episode, Christina is sharing why it is so important to know your numbers, the struggles of scaling and how she’s pivoted more times that she can count. We also talked about how she’s been proactive about business education and why she focuses on caring about people, but not what they think about her. ON TODAY’S EPISODE: Her career background prior to starting Farmgirl Flowers The research that lead her to an e-commerce floral boutique How her business model has changed over the years The importance of knowing your numbers as an entrepreneur How she predicted numbers at the beginning of her business The advantages of pivoting often in your business Her attitude towards copycats The very first position Christina hired for & how adding team members impacted her business Farmgirl Flower’s marketing strategy What success looked like for Christina in the early days & what it looks like now How she learned business concepts Lessons Christina has learned as an entrepreneur The importance of focusing on team culture to avoid burn out Her advice for someone just starting out as an entrepreuneur What’s next for Farmgirl Flowers   KEY TAKE-AWAYS: “Younger consumers, it's not rocket science what they want. They want something that's beautiful, they want to feel like they weren't ripped off or robbed in the process. They want a good value for the money.” - Christina Stembel “There's 27 million new box companies or socks companies or toothbrush companies, but there's nobody that's reinvented this space yet, so let me see if I can be the one to do it.” - Christina Stembel “My goal from day one was to build a billion dollar company, and I have no qualms saying that.” - Christina Stembel “Everybody always asks if we're profitable. We have to be profitable.” - Christina Stembel “As an entrepreneur, you have to know your numbers. You have to know your forecast. You have to know your projections, and you have to go back and check them often.” - Christina Stembel “Our consumers are telling us what they like and don't like, and so listening to them, seeing what's selling, not selling, and then pivoting.” - Christina Stembel “Every two weeks, our company looks different than it did two weeks ago.” - Christina Stembel “I think the fact that we can change so quickly without any red tape allows us to ensure that we are a very healthy, financially healthy company.” - Christina Stembel “If everybody's making things that look strikingly similar to us and creating businesses that look strikingly similar to us, that means we're the best.” - Christina Stembel “I think part of the thing that makes us different and more special than our competitors, in my opinion, is that we have a heart.” - Christina Stembel “The number one thing that to me means that I'm being successful is that I don't run out of money.” - Christina Stembel “I think if we focus on building a business that we believe in, that has the core values that really mirror our own personal core values, then that'll breed success.” - Katie Hunt “You can learn anything you want just on the internet now.” - Christina Stembel “The number one thing that I've learned from it is that it doesn't matter if you make mistakes. The only thing that matters is that you get back up.” - Christina Stembel “Just because they say it doesn't make it true.” - Christina Stembel   CONNECT WITH CHRISTINA STEMBEL Website: http://www.farmgirlflowers.com Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/FarmgirlFlowers Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/farmgirlflowers/ Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/farmgirlflowers/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/farmgirlflowers   SPECIAL OFFER: Proof to Product listeners get 3 free months of Gusto when they run their first payroll.  Go to www.gusto.com/proof for more information   What if you could sit in a room with 30 other product makers who are doing exactly what you’re doing -- building a business they love!  You could share resources, leverage each other’s experiences and learn from those who are where you want to be. Imagine the growth potential!   Join us March 14-15th in Los Angeles for our Paper Camp Conference.   Over 800 brands have attended Paper Camp.  Brands that sell to stores like Target, Paper Source, Container Store, Anthropologie and independent boutiques internationally.   This program is for you if you’re a stationery or gift company interested in selling wholesale, exhibiting at trade shows or looking to expand your outreach to wholesale customers.     We believe in the power of community, collaboration and sharing everything we know.  Get all the details and register at  www.tradeshowcamp.com/papercamp SUBSCRIBE To subscribe on iOS, go to the iTunes page and subscribe to Proof to Product. On Android, you can listen using your favorite podcast app. WRITE A REVIEW Writing a review on iTunes will help other product based business owners find Proof to Product as they are working to up level, scale, and build profitable and sustainable companies. FOLLOW PROOF TO PRODUCT Follow Proof to Product on Instagram for the latest updates. JOIN OUR EMAIL LIST If you'd like to receive more information about our upcoming episodes of Proof to Product including show notes and information about our guests, head over to www.prooftoproduct.com and sign up for our email list.   SHARE Be sure to share Proof to Product with all of the product based business owners that you know! ABOUT PROOF TO PRODUCT: Proof to Product is brought to you by Tradeshow Bootcamp and hosted by Katie Hunt. Since 2011, TSBC has worked with hundreds of product based businesses to help them up level, scale, and build profitable sustainable companies. You can find our show notes and additional resources at ProofToProduct.com. If you like what you heard today, please head over to Apple Podcast to leave a five star review and subscribe. Thanks so much for listening. We'll be back next week with a new episode!

In This Episode You Will Hear About: The upcoming Bliss Project Reevaluating your habits Quotes we are loving How to know what your next goal is Preparing yourself to be an epic human   Resources: Learn more: The Bliss Project March 2019 Check out: Farmgirl Flowers     Show Notes We are having another Q&A day today, so I’m joined by my lovely assistant, Evans, to answer questions sent in by you! I also wanted to remind you to get your tickets to The Bliss Project, coming to Newport Beach, CA this March. It is going to be an incredible weekend of complete life transformation & immersion. Tickets are over half sold out– I want to make sure you can get yours before they are gone!   Questions: “How do you train your brain to be productive even when you’re not feeling it?” From: _angela_jones “How do you know what your next goal is? How do you prepare yourself for the day to be an epic human being?” From: kathleenparent.ca   Quotes "I only hang around people who feed my vision now.” “You would be amazed at what opens up for you when you actually start following the energy and the creativity.”   Review of the Week: “Lori Harder knows what’s up and speaks to my soul. If you’re on a journey to truly love yourself and find your happy, you absolutely need to have this podcast in your life!” @goldandgoodvibes   Follow me on social media @LoriHarder on Instagram and Lori Harder on Facebook

Christina Stembel, Founder and CEO of Farmgirl Flowers has created a business based on an age old beauty, flowers. She uses the less is more approach but that has not stopped her business from blooming. With more than 75 employees, the company is doing $15 million plus in annual revenue and Christina has her sights set on a billion. Listen in to find out how this true farm girl, without formal business training, is creating a beautiful empire. She shares her story to A Milli. www.farmgirlflowers.comA Milli is produced by www.MayzieMedia.com

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

Christina Stembel and Jenna walk through the evolution of Farmgirl Flowers, from Christina making bouquets in her 100 square foot bathroom in San Francisco to becoming a multimillion dollar company. Christina breaks down the two most pressing challenges she's faced over last seven years - the do or die moment she feared would end the business and the decision to start sourcing flowers internationally - through the lens of the lessons they taught her on reframing situations to make rational decisions rather than emotional ones. She also shares how author Brené Brown's teachings on vulnerability have profoundly impacted her leadership style as well as the two questions she would ask Brown and Oprah over coffee. 

Does growth sound like an exciting business goal? How about a little scary and overwhelming too? Do you need to raise capital to achieve this level of exponential growth? When do you reach that step and what are the hurdles you’re going to have to leap over? Today’s guest, Christina Stembel, founder and CEO of Farmgirl Flowers is all about that 100% growth. Farmgirl Flowers is direct to consumer e-commerce flower company, offering designer quality arrangements at the same generic e-commerce prices. It achieves this price by providing a few curated flower options that reduce the choice for consumers and the amount of waste. In this episode, you will… Gain the tactical tools to reach the same level of exponential growth Understand the benefits of focus groups Hear how Christina bounced back from  $411 in her business account Develop ways to remain authentic, while scaling your company  Know why having culture is crucial for success Learn why it’s hard for women to raise capital INSIGHTS: “I was that person who drove everyone nuts with a different business idea every week, sometimes every day. I had an idea notebook with me at all times and I would really annoy all my friends and family. Every girls’ night would turn into a beta testing night.” Christina Stembel “Look at what the market size is and see what your potential is within that market, how much share you can take from other people or grow a new category in something.” Christina Stembel “Amazon, with their prime, is really changing the way consumers purchase online a lot, where they just assume shipping should be free...”Christina Stembel “I’m very big into getting your minimum viable product out there. I knew I needed to stop talking about shipping and just do it.” Christina Stembel “I think the worry of money, not having money and constantly the struggle of not running out of money actually made us healthier. Because I know every dime that we spend at the company; I still do. This is going to be the hardest point for me, to give up some control of, as we continue to grow.” Christina Stembel “Financial knowledge, being really aware of what you’re spending money on, and your responsibility to your team is really big.” Christina Stembel “Less than 2% of all capital goes to women-owned businesses. I love stats. I love numbers. I don’t think you can argue with numbers. People try and say ‘oh, it’s just because women aren’t starting businesses as often' that’s not true; over 50% of all new business are started by women.” Christina Stembel “I pitched over 30 companies back then and all of my male counterpoints were able to get funding, pre revenue or with far less revenue numbers than us. And the only difference is that they had a pedigree and that they’re male.” Christina Stembel “I was fighting hard to help save an industry that didn’t necessarily want to be saved by me.” Christina Stembel “I’m getting beat up a lot in the flower industry right now for just stating what’s going on, but as a person I believe if you sweep things under the carpet, nothing is going to change. So I just want to be real about it, because I want to see change.”Christina Stembel “I put a lot of thought into the company as far as what benefits are we providing, what’s our pay, how can we make sure we’re providing good jobs and I thought that was enough. But it wasn’t enough, because I didn’t put any energy into our culture and it hit a breaking point.” Christina Stembel RESOURCES Farmgirl Flowers Pinterest Farmgirl Flowers Facebook Farmgirl Flowers Instagram Farmgirl Flowers Website Farmgirl Flowers Twitter Netflix Culture Deck Lean Startup by Eric Ries Hard Thing About Hard Things by Ben Horowitz Brené Brown Braving the Wilderness Brené Brown

Christina Stembel – Farmgirl Flowers “Be Realistic With Yourself” Christina Stembel, founder of Farmgirl Flowers, is disrupting the flower industry. As she builds a business based around her customers, Christina is blossoming as an entrepreneur and is blooming with success. She strives to create a special experience that recipients will remember and that senders can rely upon. Christina’s beautiful in-season bouquets decrease the waste and increase the experience. Listen in as Christina shares her path to e-commerce success. This is an episode you won’t want to miss! Whether you’re a product manager in an established company or an aspiring business owner with an idea for a new product business, Making It Real will provide you with real tools and advice on how to be a successful product entrepreneur! Hosted by Bob Caporale and Tate Tegtmeier Original Music by Bob Caporale Note: No endorsement of any product or service featured on Making It Real is either expressed or implied by its hosts or producers.

Christina Stembel – Farmgirl Flowers “Be Realistic With Yourself” Christina Stembel, founder of Farmgirl Flowers, is disrupting the flower industry. As she builds a business based around her customers, Christina is blossoming as an entrepreneur and is blooming with success. She strives to create a special experience that recipients will remember and that senders can rely upon. Christina’s beautiful in-season bouquets decrease the waste and increase the experience. Listen in as Christina shares her path to e-commerce success. This is an episode you won’t want to miss! Whether you’re a product manager in an established company or an aspiring business owner with an idea for a new product business, Making It Real will provide you with real tools and advice on how to be a successful product entrepreneur! Hosted by Bob Caporale and Tate Tegtmeier Original Music by Bob Caporale Note: No endorsement of any product or service featured on Making It Real is either expressed or implied by its hosts or producers.

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!

Lindsey Gray, senior director of the NYU Entrepreneurial Institute, leads a discussion with successful startup founders—Christina Stembel, founder of Farmgirl Flowers and Huda Idrees, founder of healthcare startup Dot Health.

Today we have none other than Christina Stembel – founder, CEO and creative genius behind Farmgirl Flowers! We chat with Christina about her company and how they got started, her love for business, knack for creating beauty, and she even offers up some advice for would be entrepreneurs. And seriously, this gal is a GEM. […]

In 2010, Farmgirl Flowers’ Christina Stembel quit her gig at Stanford to launch a startup aimed at personalizing the cookie-cutter flower delivery industry. Her locally-sourced, artistically arranged, and totally gorgeous bouquets took off with a customer base craving naturally vibrant flowers. Now Christina is a successful founder who has grown her business from a bike-delivery service in San Francisco to a national destination for on-demand bouquets picked from American farms. Christina is one of two female founders we’ll be chatting with in our next Lean Startup webcast focusing on the specific strategies of next level CEOs. Our other guest on Aug. 31st is Mamie Kanfer Stewart, who is doing the brave work of killing off unproductive meetings through her company Meeteor, which helps organizations use meetings to drive productivity and collaboration rather than being massive time and soul-sucks. The two founders will talk with Lean Startup expert Aubrey Smith about the companies they’re building and the Lean Startup methods that helped them get their businesses off the ground.

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.