Stop Overthinking Social Media: Real Strategies That Work

Episode 327:  If social media feels overwhelming, confusing, or like one more thing on your already full plate, this episode is for you.

Lori and Vonda sit down with Chris Grigas and Karrie Wallace, both from the Bill Doran Company team working from different locations, to have a real, honest conversation about what’s actually working right now on Instagram and Facebook for florists. From struggling to post and feeling behind on trends to understanding what the algorithm is really favoring, this episode breaks it all down in a way that feels doable.

They share why so many shops are missing the mark, how to think differently about your content, and what it looks like to create posts that truly connect with your audience. You’ll hear practical ideas you can use right away, along with a refreshing reminder that social media doesn’t have to be perfect to be effective. In fact, the most impactful content right now is authentic, unfiltered, and human.

Whether you love social media or avoid it altogether, this conversation will leave you feeling more confident, less overwhelmed, and ready to show up in a way that actually grows your business.

Sponsored by:
Flower Clique
Flower Clique Prep School
Real Life Retail Florist

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:02

What we're now finding just in my research is that videos and carousels are all the algorithm is really recognizing.

SPEAKER_02 0:14

Welcome to the business and pleasure of flowers. We're your hosts, Vonda LaFever and Lori Wilson.

SPEAKER_03 0:20

And we believe that business and fun are a perfect combination. Kind of like us, Vonda.

SPEAKER_04 0:29

Hello, Vonda and our guests who we're going to introduce in just a second. How is everybody doing?

SPEAKER_02 0:37

Good. We don't usually have this full of a screen, Lori.

SPEAKER_04 0:40

No, I feel a little like we're on a Zoom call. We have two special guests today. And I'm very excited for these guests because I meet with these two people weekly in a support group. So I guess. Kind of. I don't know. Depends. It depends on how the conversation goes. So we have Chris Gregis from Bill Dorne, who is sales and media. I don't think we ever got your is that the title you gave me?

unknown 1:14

It's good.

SPEAKER_04 1:14

Okay. This week. You right. And he's in Albany, correct?

SPEAKER_00 1:18

Albany, New York, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 1:20

Okay. And then we have Miss Carrie Wallace, my Houston buddy. And you are the marketing manager for Bill Dorn Company. And first of all, thank you both. Bonda and I are very excited. You guys are here. We meet, Carrie and I are we both twice a week? We got we have Tuesday and Wednesday. So we have two support group of meetings a week. Yes. We do. We do. Absolutely. We talk a lot and we learn a lot. And so one of those meetings, the Wednesday meeting, Carrie, you run, and Chris and I just kind of follow along and talk. But you give us a lot of great ideas about social media. And so I reached out to the two of you because you have all of the great tech skills and as far as when you should post and how you should post and what apps are good to use. And then Chris, you have got some hilarious posts that just crack me up. Thank you. So I don't know. Your brain is amazing.

SPEAKER_02 2:30

Back up just a minute and explain to our clickers what support group the two of the three of you together. And I'd be helpful.

SPEAKER_04 2:38

It's like, okay, Lori, what kind of well it changes. Every other Wednesday is social media strategies. And then the alternative Wednesdays is what? Marketing strategies? I don't even know. Is that right? Absolutely. Absolutely.

SPEAKER_02 2:52

I do read. I do look at the email. And these are from Bill Doran branches. Yes. That are on these committees, correct?

SPEAKER_04 3:02

Yes. Yes. So we meet with them. And then our Tuesday meeting is something about customers. Certain team. There you go. There you go. Customer team.

SPEAKER_02 3:10

So but this is all about social media. What do you need help? That's why I'm sitting here because I'm listening. Because you have to know I am not into social media. I'll scroll once in a while. Or Lori will say, You got to see this. You got to see bus.

SPEAKER_04 3:26

But here's the thing about Vonda. Two couple things. I'm going to just this. I'm not going to say I'm going to throw it under the bus. You're just going to throw me under the bus. Throw under the bus. Well, you say that. Yeah, because she threw me under the bus earlier this week in another meeting. But anyway, first of all, when I told her I was going to invite you guys, she was like, Great, totally. Love them. Great. You should. A few days ago, she was like, Do I need to be in on that podcast? True. True. Because she does not like social media. And I was like, yes, yes, you do.

SPEAKER_02 3:57

Oh, I appreciate everything people do on social media, but you just my knowledge. Right. Right.

SPEAKER_04 4:03

The other thing. Yes. We are both we're pretty okay with Facebook. We don't love it, but we know how to do it. It's Instagram for some reason in our old age that it's harder. Not to scroll, but to post. Yes. I had to post this week because Ellie was out of town. Yeah. And it almost created a panic attack. You saw my face yesterday. I was like, I've got I don't know the it's not the creating of it, it's the actual how do you go about posting?

SPEAKER_02 4:41

So with all of that said. And we have all the people here who can do it. Carrie is amazing. And Chris, I watch those and I'm like, oh, you guys, it makes it look so easy.

SPEAKER_04 4:52

Right. You really do. And so I I learned something from both of you every time I attend those meetings. Yeah. So that's why I wanted Joe and Beyond. So I got a bunch of questions. I sent you all a bunch of these questions just for ideas. I don't know how many we're gonna get to. Because our industry struggles with technology.

SPEAKER_05 5:15

Would you guys agree?

SPEAKER_01 5:19

I I do. Absolutely, Lori. I think there's a lot to be said about marking one of the prettiest products in Ozaman. Right. A lot of people will think, oh, it's just flowers and we can make it fun, just take a few photos. Um, but there's so much more, that strategy, right, that we refer to that really goes into it. So I'm really looking forward to this conversation. And fake lace, again, I'm so excited to be here. So yeah, yeah. Appreciate the opportunity.

SPEAKER_04 5:45

So let's go ahead and start with you, Carrie, since you mentioned that and that kind of leans into my first question. What are the biggest mistakes that you see? Because I know the majority of your job is scrolling and looking at content, right? Whether it's of wholesalers, all the branches, other competitor branches, or flower shops themselves, what mistakes do you see happening within our industry on social media that you're like, oh gosh, if they only knew these things?

SPEAKER_01 6:20

Fantastic question. And for me, I think the one thing that stands out across the board, whether this is big industry, big company, or the mob and flop shops, retail things that we serve in the wholesale world, people really, really, really want to see the products more than anything. I think that when you talk about the promotion of social media and these different businesses across these platforms, of course, people are interacting and engaging with these new businesses. But when you're coming to these pages and profiles, maybe for the first time, right? Because this is where most people find their customers and come into contact with these new accounts. Um, people have to be open and receptive to your business, really putting your best foot forward, making sure that profile is concise, making sure you have highlights because that has something to do with just the initial introduction that most people get to your business. Different things along those different profiles all help just to kind of build that presence. But I think people kind of miss the mark when they're talking about that personalization, right? Making presence stand out amongst all the many different businesses that exist in the world wide web and online with social media. We see different things that are also done right too, which I'm sure we'll touch on at this call. But yeah, definitely I think that that individuality I think is what may be missing and that focus on products. People have to see what they're buying, otherwise they won't bite.

SPEAKER_04 7:46

Yeah, totally love that. And so focusing on products and sharing the big world stuff. Speaking of that, Chris, I'm gonna ask you what what platforms, just in what you're seeing, do you think are most important right now? I know this is objective.

SPEAKER_00 8:07

Right. I would say for our business, Instagram is like the key because it is, I think it's the most used as far as for business purposes. I mean, Facebook gets used.

SPEAKER_05 8:20

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 8:20

But I think it's it leans into more socialness and it can get into muddy water with political and this kind of thing. So we have to kind of like be very wary of what we're posting on there and be you know, careful really, because we're putting our best foot forward and we have to make sure that that foot doesn't step in the wrong thing.

SPEAKER_05 8:40

Right.

SPEAKER_00 8:40

So, you know, my thing with Facebook is I'm like, I I keep my distance with it. I post our posts for Instagram automatically to our Facebook for the business. That's kind of like a given because we want to hit both platforms. But when you're thinking about the Instagram, tends to be a little bit more of a, I would say like an artistic approach when it comes to your business where people are like looking at images and looking at beautiful things. They it's enticing because they might want to buy something off of your Instagram for all we know.

SPEAKER_05 9:10

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 9:11

Facebook doesn't really, they have it, but it's very minimal on that end. So I feel like Instagram is kind of like the way to go because it it is like the best offering for a business to like promote themselves with media, really. Right. And affordable because it's free.

SPEAKER_04 9:30

Right. Right. I would agree. I I went years ago, 10 years ago, when I was starting to learn about social media as far as in our industry, and I sat in, it could have even been more than 10 years ago, on a webinar to learn just you know, the difference between Facebook and Instagram as far as posting. And one thing they said then, I know things have changed, is they said think of Facebook as you're developing relationships with your community. People comment more and you go back and forth and you kind of get to know each other and you ha ha ha, you know, whatever. But Instagram is you go think of it as beauty, like it's you're prettier, and it's look at this, and this is your thing. Do you think it is still somewhat like that? Or do you think Instagram is becoming more community?

SPEAKER_00 10:28

It has a community drive. I understand that difference, and I think that like the nuance of that is a little bit like what you're saying is like, okay, we're talking to our family, but then we're also selling to other businesses. Right. It's that funny balance of like, I want both of these things when I post on here, because we do that, to hit the market the proper way. So that's sometimes the difficulty when you're doing a post. You're like, yeah, if I post this on Instagram and I want it to look artistic and I want there to be people on here longing for what I am selling.

SPEAKER_04 11:06

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 11:06

And when that transfers to Facebook, it's like, oh, grandma liked it. Yes. So, you know, there's that funny transition where you're like, okay, yeah, grandma liked it, but I can't get too like squirrely about it.

SPEAKER_04 11:18

I have to be like or the weird guy that you went to high school with.

SPEAKER_00 11:22

You're like, Right, right.

SPEAKER_04 11:25

Like so creepy. I mean, seriously, that's the weird things that happen. And the other thing they said, and this goes back to what you mentioned, Chris, is usually a purchase isn't made on Facebook. Whereas Instagram, you're like, ooh, I want that, like link in bio or things like that.

SPEAKER_00 11:45

And it's like very link driven. Like you can post your link, and you can do it on both because they're meta, but yeah, one seems to be more relevant for that, which is the Instagram part.

SPEAKER_05 11:56

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 11:57

I don't know if Carrie wants to chime on this one because she does have more of the technical on this, but it's what I've experienced just in the year that I've done this for Bill Doran, is what I'm saying.

SPEAKER_01 12:09

Well, I guess if it's just being thrown to me, I will chime, but I have a bit of a contrast, in my opinion. And my perspective is coming from being in multiple industries, not just ours, yeah, but across the audiences that we reach, I think is really where people have to focus on. I hear you all saying that absolutely Instagram is that driving force behind the visual aspect of social media. People want to see those pretty things. Vanity is one of the things that I think can apply to both of the platforms. But when we talk about the way that we promote across Instagram, absolutely audiences are more prone to interact with businesses, engage with different people via comments, via likes, via shares on Instagram. But for Facebook, there is still a lot of opportunity that I think that if businesses can learn the platform, they can absolutely capitalize off of and definitely see a profit. Marketplace being a part of Facebook is definitely a place where a lot of businesses can see a lot of growth and opportunity and even just connect with new customers. But of course, that all comes with knowing the platform, being able to make those postings. Like Lori was saying, those audiences, those demographics very, very heavily across those platforms because Facebook, it does feel more geared to like that family sense, right? And then when you look at the numbers on it, the strategy that I've seen, right? Most people will say, well, that 30 and up group seems to be more favorable to Facebook, whereas 30 and under is more Instagram. So anything content-wise that you see, you really want to connect to those younger audiences. Maybe Instagram is the better place. Not to say that other audiences won't see it. Of course, everyone has access to the internet. But then those older audiences that maybe have the more money, more resources, more connections to share those different offerings. That's where Facebook can really come in at. So I feel like there's a balance for both. There's a place for both. It's just about the way that you strategize and utilize both for your business.

SPEAKER_02 14:09

Well, I'm gonna chime in here because I'm in the 30 plus plus more. And I will say that Facebook is more where I would think that the majority of the floral industry is. I mean, in that the age group are used to Facebook. Yes, they're on Instagram. I mean, we're on Instagram, we're looking there too. But I do agree with you, Carrie. It's like know your audience. And so many times the yes, we want new younger customers, but as far as a retail florist, you know, the people with the disposal income are the ones who are on Facebook. So we have to watch that as well.

unknown 14:50

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 14:51

That's actually such a good observation because I talk about this a lot with people is knowing your audience and like from our perspective, the wholesale end, we are selling to 20 to 45 or something. And then they are selling to another demographic. So we have to understand that there's a transition of who we're selling to versus who they're selling to. So sometimes the posts that we do even, I post as if I'm selling to our customer's customer. There's a little bit of a nuance there, but I try not to push that boundary too much because I don't want to step on the toes of our customer selling flowers to their customer.

SPEAKER_02 15:32

That that makes total sense. But I would have to challenge you when you say that your customers are between 20 and 40. I I would bet not, Chris. I would kind of bet not. But you know, that's okay. Okay. Yeah, I I think that's more realistic. So it's all good.

SPEAKER_00 15:49

I'm thinking of like flower shop owners or people who work in flower shops, kind of like that, maybe that group age group.

SPEAKER_02 15:55

Sure. Yeah, you do a great job. Go ahead, Lori. Sorry. Didn't mean a take your way.

SPEAKER_04 16:01

No, this is a great conversation. I just know that you're gonna yell at me when we get I know, but I know. Because I want Carrie to give some applicable things for flower shops. So, like practical content ideas. So let's pretend somebody had one your services for three months, a flower shop.

SPEAKER_02 16:25

That would that would be a great giveaway. That's a great giveaway.

SPEAKER_04 16:28

I love it.

SPEAKER_02 16:30

Customer service days. Yeah, days are coming up. There you go, Carrie.

SPEAKER_04 16:34

Practical content ideas. So this is our pretend scenario. If you were running a flower shop's Instagram, Facebook, whatever, what would that look like?

SPEAKER_01 16:42

Well, for me, Lori, I am a bit of an organized chaos kind of person. It's why we love you. Because you guys do. You do such a good job tolerating me. No, we love it. Love it. But question, I think there is opportunity to do a lot of things. When you talk about, say, a one-month plan, right? We have a cadence of maybe three to five posts a week where we come in and we do two promotional posts, product features, and highlights. Um, maybe one behind the scenes where we can really capture the operations of the business, the processing, the new trucks arriving, but then also making sure we have a post of occasion or customer highlight, right? What we call in the marketing world UGC, user-generated content. Um, that is something that a lot of people don't necessarily capitalize off of. But guys, when I say it is one of the best, best, best things that you can utilize for your business. Think about when you're shopping online, right? And you go to Amazon, what is one of the first things that you read when you're looking for a product? A review? Yeah. Absolutely. Those reviews, guys, the user generated content is basically as thing as that online on our social media platforms and profiles. All we have to do is repost and share, right? There's opportunity even for collaboration, right? When your customers are posting their in products, in customer results, go back as that retail shop and say, hey, look what we had the opportunity to really have a hand in. Because that's something that even at the dorm we practice. And no matter where we're supporting across any of our 30 plus locations, we always, always love to see what customers are coming up with. So definitely, definitely looking at those options and opportunities because all month long, right? You can have, say for February, one major holiday with Valentine's Day, of course, other things going on throughout the month, but a whole lot of opportunity for just organic capitalization online.

SPEAKER_04 18:34

Yeah, that is so, so great. Okay, so Chris, speaking of content, yeah, I have two words for you. Kristen.

SPEAKER_00 18:45

I had a feeling that was gonna come up. I actually wrote something about that because I was my gosh. I was, yeah, that was a good one.

SPEAKER_04 18:55

Okay, so for the listeners that are like, why are they talking about Kristen Bell? And for people like Sweet Vonda, who's like, who's Kristen Bell? Right. Yeah, I she doesn't know. Kristen Bell is a movie star, okay. She's a celebrity, Vonda, and she liked one of his posts. She liked it, clicked the like button because she was talking about those flowers. I can't remember which gala or award show it was. You you talk about it, you know better.

SPEAKER_00 19:25

Right. So it was at Golden Globes, and she was commenting about because the, you know, they had done these fantastic displays of floral, and they had done these beautiful roses, and she was like, Oh my god, like she's telling all the other actors, look at this rose, it is absolutely amazing. And she's like looking at it and touching it and inspecting it, and she's like, I can't believe how humongous this is. I can't believe this is a real thing. And the reality was it wasn't a real thing, it was actually a floral design, it was a composite rose, so it was a created rose that looks like a gigantic rose. And without being snooty or taking her thunder, I just wrote a thing basically saying, I love how much she was enthusiastic. It was sweet, and it made me feel good about the industry and how people still care. But at the same time, I had to tell her, this is not a rose. You can't go pick this rose anywhere in the world. And it just went crazy. All these comments, people were tagging her in the post. It got like 105,000 views. That's what it's, I think now, like so much reaction, engagement, likes, you know, people talking to me saying they had beautiful roses the same size from growers. And it's like, okay, we've been in the industry long enough. We're not going to get tricked into this like little fishing game. But but it was really cool to get that kind of reaction out of what was meant to be just me explaining to our customer when you see something like this, the most important thing is to educate your customer of what the reality is. Because if they walk into your shop and say, I want that rose that I saw at the Golden Globes, and you say, It doesn't exist, there your credibility has to be proven at that point. And if you swing in early and can prove it early and say, I have the education behind this, here's what this is. It just helps you have that credibility. And I think that actually was one of those little notes that you sent us where you wrote what kind of posts help build trust and connection with customers. And I think it's the education is like the main thing where people will trust you enough to come to you and say, they understand me, they know what I'm looking for, and they will take care of me. And I think that's like the framing of a good relationship in a business.

SPEAKER_04 21:45

Absolutely. 100%. You set them up as the expert. I know Aaron, our friend, Erin from McNamara Florist, she did the same thing a few years back, something regarding the Olympics, and she jumped on to educate people about the flight. Hours or lack thereof. Right. But she did it in a very thoughtful way. Yes. And explained whatever was happening. And same thing. It went viral. And what it does is when you do it ahead of the game.

SPEAKER_05 22:14

Right.

SPEAKER_04 22:14

It sets them up like, wow, they know their stuff. They know what they're talking about. Right. That's that's my wholesale.

SPEAKER_00 22:22

That's my go-to now. Right.

SPEAKER_04 22:23

My go-to person. They know what they're doing. And I think it was incredible that you jumped on that. And so my question, besides that, was so is how do you come up with your content? Because you do, and I know Carrie calls you out almost weekly on your content. You just it just pops up in your brain, or you have a team there. I don't think you have a team.

SPEAKER_00 22:50

No, I mean, it's me, and I do bounce ideas off of people. Actually, the funny thing is, like Kelly, who is part of the media team also, I will like do a post on my phone and I'm like, look how funny this is. And she's like, hmm.

SPEAKER_05 23:06

Yeah. That's fun.

SPEAKER_00 23:09

I don't know what that is. And I'm like, oh, okay, wrong audience. Let's see. Let me adjust. Let me and then that helps me edit so much better because if I'm just posting what I like, I may be missing the mark on who my direct person is, who I'm trying to reach. Right. So I think a lot of it has to do with the fact that I've been a florist for a long time. So I understand design. I understand being on the bench. I understand wedding setup. I understand funeral. You know, there's a lot in there that you can say, like it's empathetic posting where you're on their side, you're teaching them, I know what it's like, and I will help you, whether it's get through it or it's manage it, or it's ignore it, or fire that customer, or whatever you have to do in this scenario, I've been there. So I will be there for you because I want you to learn before you have a catastrophe on your hands.

SPEAKER_04 24:04

Yeah. Yeah. No.

SPEAKER_00 24:05

No.

SPEAKER_04 24:05

I was in a meeting earlier this week and we were talking about social media, and I helped these particular people do some social media stuff. And we were talking about at one time having somebody else come in outside of the industry and have them help. And they brought in the problem with that is they don't get our industry. Right. They don't love it. They're not like it's hard. Our industry's weird in a beautiful way.

SPEAKER_00 24:36

Well, it's so complex. I think that's really so complex.

SPEAKER_04 24:39

And so, like you're saying, posting something about creating a sympathy design, but being able to make it even kind of funny, right? Understanding your audience, that's hard to do when you're outside of this industry when you don't have people. So you gotta be really careful for sure. In in who's doing it. You can't just hire social media managers to run your exactly or your wholesaler or you know, whatever. Okay, back to the tech side, Carrie. I do have a question for you. Laura, when it comes to content, not what you're gonna make, but do you need reels and videos and graphics? And like, what are you supposed to make? Like it's hard that I'm like, enough. What's the difference between a story and a reel and an archive and a graphic and a carousel and all it's a thing?

SPEAKER_01 25:36

It's okay, Lori. And awesome question because I know a lot of people feel like it is the headache and vein of their existence when they have to go back and format also fall under that category. I quite literally cannot with the formatting. But for a very, very fast crash course on I think the easiest way to remember carousels, videos, and individuals still post. Yes, they are three totally separate things. And then, of course, stories, right? So, really, you have four types of content that you can post for both of these platforms, Facebook and Instagram, which is usually the consistent kind of profile that most businesses and retail shops I find keep. When it comes to these formattings, I think that what can be most effective can definitely be video footage from the branches, definitely something we practice at the BDC level. But what we're now finding, just in my kind of separate research, is that videos and carousels are all the algorithm is really recognizing. Not just say individual posts and still posts, one photo at a time, right, is what we're used to seeing. Doesn't still resonate and really hit with the audience. It absolutely will come across and share just the same, right? But when you talk about what the algorithm boosts, what the algorithm will push to maybe an explore page. That's more often than not the reels, the carousel posts that come with multiple still images built in and embedded with those captions that can be the same, maybe in A-B setting, so that you have a different caption as the carousel is continuing to slide. But stuff like that, that is what the customer, the platforms, they want to see. And so anytime I'm pushing, and I know Chris can attest to this, any new type of content idea, guys, video carousel, that's kind of where we're going with that, right? And that's definitely my live by die by right now, Lori.

SPEAKER_02 27:25

That gets so hard when you're doing a carousel because it's so easy to do one. Lori and I have been working on some of these, and she's like, I need a carousel. And I'm like, how many pictures do we have to have? It just yeah, it takes hours. I mean, one post is like okay, but it makes sense, Carrie, then to know that that's what the algorithm is pulling up. Then it's I guess worth the extra time then to put it in there. But man, Lori spends hours and hours on to enverse yourself.

SPEAKER_04 27:54

Is there a how many slides? Is there a limit or is there a certain amount you think you should have at least four or at least five or is does that matter?

SPEAKER_01 28:08

It matters. I think a lot of that depends on the messaging, right? Framing is something that we definitely emphasize for social media all the time. Visually speaking, when you're going to Instagram, I want to say they recently even changed the limit to increase. At max, originally it was 10. I say that number is probably still your sweet spot because task that people aren't really interested, right? People will scroll and probably get to slide maybe seven or eight and just stop if it's not something they genuinely want to read. Um, one of the things that I've seen be most effective with carousel postings from a visual standpoint can be just information or quotes even in the carousel. Absolutely. And that can be just verbalized text and then the caption something separate that can add on to that and supplement. But of course, everybody is a bit different with messaging, right? If you're just trying to maybe convey a Happy Mother's Day post to your audience, it might not take 10 pages to do that, maybe two or three, but definitely depends on the message and the audience that's receiving that message. Because say you're posting something educational, inspiring, you definitely want to leave a little bit more detail. And that's definitely where we see that increase in number come in. But all depends.

SPEAKER_04 29:20

Okay, so there's not a minimum that you know that you know of.

SPEAKER_01 29:30

But from there, not really. Okay.

SPEAKER_00 29:33

And like thinking on the outer edge of that, when you say like carousel, and if it's two photos, there may be a reason why you only want two photos. Like it's a very specific thing, like front and back photo. Like that could that could be the reason why you have a carousel of front and back or or whatever it is.

SPEAKER_04 29:52

Or one of those, how it started, how it's right, exactly.

SPEAKER_00 29:55

So it's like those are like you have to like reframe your mind as these are tools, they're not parameters.

SPEAKER_04 30:00

Right.

SPEAKER_00 30:01

You can say, This works because I can use it in this very specific way, and it's effective.

SPEAKER_04 30:06

Chris, how many hours a week do you think you spend creating question?

SPEAKER_00 30:12

I mean, I'm here eight till four every day, and I'm I'm here every day, Monday through Friday, and then I work on weekends, like we rotate weekends. So I'm I'm doing it literally all day. And it's not like I'm sitting here with my phone and taking a picture and going, okay, now I have to make a reel out of this. It's like I'm walking through the greenhouse and I go, I have to have that right now. I will do something with it tomorrow.

SPEAKER_04 30:38

Exactly.

SPEAKER_00 30:39

I get a great shot, and I'm like, you know what, do a backup shot just in case.

SPEAKER_05 30:43

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 30:43

Because I'm known for that. There are stories. But the thing is, like, when you get into media in this certain way, you find yourself seeing things in like this light where you're like, I don't know why I'm drawn to it. I have to do something with it later or today or in an hour or whatever. And that kind of comes with a little bit of experience with it, but I think it doesn't take, it's not an effort thing. It's more like it just starts coming to you because you realize you're practicing really. That's what it really comes down. It's like editing. When you start realizing that you're really bad at editing, and then you start trying, and you try this and you try that, and you do this app, and then you're like, oh, I just did that two days ago. I'm gonna try it again. Oh, I I I remember I did this, but I'm gonna just change this thing one shade off, one filter.

unknown 31:33

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 31:34

Start to learn these things, like they're second nature at this point. Where you see a picture and you go, I know how I want that to look next. You're not messing around, you're like focused on it. So that's I mean, I'm working on this stuff literally from the minute I walk in until I walk out, and half the time I'm at home editing on the couch. Yeah. So but it's it's fun. I enjoy doing it. I don't think it's me, you know, losing time. It's more like I know that tomorrow morning at 8 a.m. I can go done.

SPEAKER_05 32:02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 32:03

And I'm not thinking, oh, I'm on the phone, and then I forgot to post that color story and I forgot to do this. And it's like I have things in drafts literally on my phone all the time.

unknown 32:11

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 32:12

Ready to go. Are you a perfectionist? Like, do you need it to be perfect?

SPEAKER_00 32:17

I don't think so. I think I'm more like I want things to look beautiful, and I want them to look like ideal, is what my approach is. So sometimes the raw footage is the best. We did a thing with March Madness where we had people shooting hoops to get ticket multipliers.

SPEAKER_05 32:37

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 32:37

And, you know, everybody's throwing a basketball, and people are walking in front of me, and one person puts their face in the camera, and I'm like, this is the best thing I've done in two weeks. I love it. It's crazy. It makes everybody realize that there's people here, and it's not robots or AI creating things.

SPEAKER_04 32:52

It's relatable. And I think that's the biggest key. I know everything you're saying, I'm nodding because I think that's what I'm learning about myself too. Just even over the weekend, I've started adding any idea that inspires me when I'm out and about, I just put it in my phone. Put it in my phone, put it in my type it. I've got the crazy, yeah. I mean, it's notebook after notebook. I and I scroll back and I'm like, but I have to make sure I put enough notes that I will remember what that idea was. Because there are some. I'm like.

SPEAKER_00 33:26

Oh, if I read this right now, it would sound like it came out of a loony bit.

SPEAKER_04 33:33

Oh, yes.

SPEAKER_00 33:34

Unbelievable.

SPEAKER_04 33:34

Well, I don't know what half of this means, and then I'm like, oh, that's what that's exactly what happens. And my husband's like, Who are you texting? I'm like, I'm not! I'm typing out an idea that I just got because I'm from this pizza place, and I thought it was funny, and I'm somehow I'm relating it to flowers.

SPEAKER_00 33:52

Right. And I'm gonna and he's like it's like the comedian who wakes up in the middle of the night and their idea. Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 33:59

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 34:00

Oh, it's so good.

SPEAKER_02 34:01

Yeah, yeah. Lori sent me an email at 4 410 this morning, and I'm like, seriously, okay, Lori, get it out of your mind. It's okay. I got it. We do that sometimes. We're you know it.

SPEAKER_04 34:14

If we do it, then you can go back to sleep later.

SPEAKER_00 34:17

So I have a notes, you know, notes in the iPhone.

SPEAKER_04 34:19

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 34:20

Mine has like 40,000 notes or something. It I you can scroll like this and it never ends. It just goes.

SPEAKER_04 34:26

That's what I'm saying. If you were to open those, that's a funny TikTok if you've ever seen that. Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 34:33

Have to open their where it's just like one word, a number. It's so good.

SPEAKER_04 34:38

Then I'm like, what in the hell is this? What kind of note in 2022 that just says hybrid? Right. What? What does that mean? Why did I and then like four, seven, eight, nine, like I don't know what that means, but I kept it. I've kept it for five years. Yeah. Sure don't want to delete that. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, it's super important. So, okay, Carrie, if you had to give our listeners, flowershop owners or florists or whoever, some advice, like last-minute tips or anything that you're like, gosh, if I do nothing, I want them to know this. What would that be?

SPEAKER_01 35:24

I really love that question, Lori. And I guess my biggest note to least, yeah, would be just reminding you all that don't overthink it, right? Social media, a lot of times, people will run their brains through the mud, try to find new ideas, big ideas, the next viral thing. Good. I promise it can be as simple as something behind the scenes and a truck coming to unload new products. It's impact, right? Framing the things that people normally see and just love because it's natural. Organic content is right now changed across all the platforms, all of them. In the age of AI, people are vying for really organic, authentic, personalized content. And so anything that you post, guys that can relate and humanize and also really resonate with your audience, run with it, please.

SPEAKER_04 36:23

I love that. I love that. What about you, Chris? If you had to give them advice, what would you say?

SPEAKER_00 36:30

I I would just piggyback that because I think a lot of what early social media was was a lot of filtering and a lot of posing and a lot of lighting and a lot of boring. Same. Um it now, when people are like, I don't have my makeup on and I don't care. I'm making a smoothie and I'm going for it, and I'm gonna go walk the dog. And you know what? I got a poop of scooper today, and I'm excited about it. Like, that's what people want to hear because they want that human connection. That literally is what social media has become. Like it's transitioned over to that point where now like AI is it's like I just want to walk away. Yeah. And I want everything to be messy hair and laughing, ugly crying. Exactly. All of it stuff. And so this industry, when you know, say somebody gets their flowers, we hear, oh, I got a box of hydrangea and like two of them are bad, they're brown or something. And I'm like, throw them out.

SPEAKER_04 37:32

Yeah.

unknown 37:33

Right.

SPEAKER_00 37:34

It's okay.

SPEAKER_04 37:34

It's an idea, put them in the draft.

SPEAKER_00 37:37

Okay, we'll credit you those two stems. Give me a picture. Yeah. And we want to just stay calm with this. We don't have to worry so much about these little, like, they're not real problems.

SPEAKER_05 37:47

No.

SPEAKER_00 37:48

And so I did my little display of silk flowers behind me. And I was like, you know what? This is just pretty simple.

SPEAKER_05 37:56

But they're real. I'd say I have no idea that.

SPEAKER_04 37:59

You duped me.

SPEAKER_00 38:01

I duped. So it's like, okay, yeah, the silk flower world, you know, even like some of the silks we have, they have not imperfections, but they're made to look real. So they have little brown tips on them now and stuff. They don't look like I always make the joke of white being too white where it's like um La Ross's teeth in French that time. So I go, oh, don't buy that ribbon. It's Ross's teeth with a wedding dress. Forget it. So by downplaying it, you're elevating it. It's an amazing way to like showcase whether it's your floral work or your personality or your business or whatever it is. It's like just be authentic. And that's like the main goal, is that's when people are gonna start following you and becoming your friend, really. They're gonna be following you, they're gonna want to know what's going on in your life. Not on a weird level, but I'm just saying, you know, hey, I I heard you guys did a really cool gala. Tell me about it. Like, that's amazing to hear a customer respond to what they've heard you're doing. Like, that feels amazing. So be authentic. That's my goal. That's my thing right now.

SPEAKER_04 39:10

Totally.

SPEAKER_00 39:10

Totally.

SPEAKER_04 39:11

I think, and Bonda will remember this a few years back, and this was before authenticity and was a thing. One of our flower shops did a video. It was like the Valentine's Day night, and or the night before. The night before, two in the morning. They were all in the back room, just a bunch of women. It's probably two in the morning. They were dancing to Britney Spears. Oops, I did it again. One of them was literally laying on the floor. I mean, trashed. The floor was trashed with because they hadn't so the funniest video. You talk about uncurated, right? You know, their hair was sideways in a potion. They were exhausted, but they were having the best time. I love it to this day. It's one of my favorites. Because I have never wanted to be working at a flower shop more than when I watched that video. Because I'm like, those are my people.

SPEAKER_00 40:11

And those are the hard times. Imagine the good times.

SPEAKER_04 40:13

I'm like, I want that fun. That's me. I want that team. You know, I'm stuck at home. I want to be dancing to Britney Spears with those people. But like that's the feeling you want to give off. You want your customer to see that and go, I want to shop there.

SPEAKER_05 40:30

They're fun.

SPEAKER_04 40:31

That's really cool. You know, I don't want to go into a place where I feel so like I only put makeup on on Sundays when I go to church. I don't want to feel like I have to put makeup on to go into a store. Right. Right. It's a perfectly curated store. Anyway, Fonda Sue, do you have any more questions?

SPEAKER_02 40:49

I don't, Lori. This has been very enlightening for me, you know, because I'm just not the social girl, but I've learned a lot. Learned a lot. Thank you both very much for joining us today. Yeah. Incredible. Yeah. Thank you, lady.

SPEAKER_04 41:04

Incredible. And we probably need to have you come on every six months and give some tips because this is hard. Yeah. That with the changes in social media and social media is hard.

SPEAKER_05 41:18

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 41:19

It is. Because for the majority of people in this industry, it's not their their passion, but it has to be done to grow your business. Right.

SPEAKER_00 41:30

That's one of the greatest memes now is I didn't know when I got hired at this job that I was also going to be the social media manager, the this, the coffee runner, the everything. And that's such a great flower shop thing because that's literally what you are.

SPEAKER_04 41:43

It is what you are for all of the things. All of the things.

SPEAKER_00 41:46

So anyway.

SPEAKER_04 41:48

All right. Thanks, guys.

SPEAKER_00 41:50

Thank you.

SPEAKER_04 41:51

Thank you, Lady.

SPEAKER_00 41:52

It was so fun.

SPEAKER_04 41:53

Thank you so much for listening to our podcast. We hope you enjoyed spending time with us because we enjoy spending time with you.

SPEAKER_03 42:00

If you did, make sure you hit that subscribe button or add the business and pleasure of flowers to your Google morning routine or your flash briefing on Alexa. We look forward to seeing you next week.

SPEAKER_02 42:14

So please come back and join us to discover how a bit of knowledge and one small change in your mindset can take you to new levels in your life and business.