This blog is a transcript from our Facebook live recording on 6th February
It's a relatively short one today, in a nice, polite, manageable 8 minute length! I address why I think I see a lot of Florists regularly asking for answers on Facebook groups and why you shouldn't do it (at least not often anyway)
Speaker 1:0:06
Hello there , my fellow Wedding Florist friend, and welcome to the Wedding Florist Social Podcast. This is the podcast for Wedding Florist to learn all about acing their online presence. I'm your host, Vicky Laffy , and as a wedding florist of over 10 years now and a certified digital marketer, I want to help you get the right clients, get more followers, and never be stuck for content ideas again, click the link in my description to get your free wedding florist guide to social media content creation today. Welcome florist to another episode of Wedding Florist Social. Now, florets, please stop asking online for ideas and inspiration from other flutists all the time. And it's a bit of a controversial one today. Maybe I am shooting myself in the foot , maybe I'm gonna get backlash for it, but I just see so many people on Facebook groups, so , so many florist asking things like , um, a bride sent me this inspiration picture. Has anyone worked with this style before? If so, do you have any suggestions or ideas? Or maybe , um, maybe a client is asking for X, Y , Z , what do you think I should do? Things like this. It's not a conclusive list, but , um, you know, things along those lines. I'm sure we've all seen posts like that on florist Facebook groups. Now, hang on, before you say anything <laugh> , before I get jumped upon, I, I don't think there's anything wrong with using these online platforms to, to bounce ideas off of each other or , um, you know, share ideas. And I'm certainly not saying that we should never ask for help. However , uh, I think people who ask this regularly, often habitually , um, I think this often comes from a place of insecurity, are an experience. And I , and I think that has to be addressed a little. Um, so it's not a terribly long one today, not a terribly long podcast. I, I just, I , I want, I think this is an important thing to mention, especially now that there are more flutists than ever around and, you know, there's a lot of people who are choosing to specialize in purely weddings and events. I , I think it's really important to address and let , well, let's address those insecurity and experience. I think in terms of insecurity, I mean, first of all, I just wanna reassure you that you know, not only do you not need to always be asking, because you know, you , you have that cre creativity and imagination inside of you already, but crucially, you bringing your own , uh, creativity, your vision, your skills, et cetera , to, to the table is what sets you apart from other florist . Guys. This is, this is the thing that there is not just one way of doing things there , there is not just one design quite often when you know, these , uh, potential clients of ours are sending you inspiration pictures, you know, they are not saying, I want this exact bouquet. People should come to you for your style. And, and, you know, it's likely that they , these , these potential clients are approaching , um, a couple of other flos for, for quotes, for example, and have been scoping you all out online, looking at your Instagram, all that sort of thing. Now, in order for them to book you, you need to stand out somehow and, and they need to love your work, right? So if your previous work is just stuff you've made because other people have given you the idea or told you what flower types to use and so on, then it's only really partly your work. Um, and, and it's not really showing you or your brand off to its full extent. Uh , and, and you know, just to reiterate what I , what I said earlier, there is nothing wrong with asking now and again, y y you know , um, we've all been there. I'm sure I've done that myself , uh, earlier on in my career. Uh, there's nothing wrong with asking, look, I'm at a loss here. I , I wanna do this for a client. You know, can , can somebody just help? Um, because I think quite often, you know, we work by ourselves or, or in extremely small teams, and it , and it's, it is nice to use these platforms to , to bounce ideas off of each other, isn't it? But, you know, we , this is aimed at , you know, the people who are constantly asking, you know, with with every other wedding that they do, you know, they're asking for ideas. What should I do? There's no should or shouldn't, there is just you. So yeah, it , it's not showing you off , offer your brand off to its full extent. And in terms of ex inexperience, just to address the point, I mean , um, that, that sort of thing earlier, that topic, I think the best way to, to build that , uh, brand and that confidence and that experience, and is by doing this yourself , uh, sometimes and exercising those muscles, those florist muscles so that you don't have to ask, and that more importantly that you can fully be you for your clients. You know, you , you , you can bring you to the table. You know, if you are reg , if you regularly ask online , uh, I can't even say the word regularly. If you regularly <laugh> ask you, I think I added an extra l there , if you regularly ask online for help , uh, and ideas, you know, then , then you'll, you'll never exercise those muscles and you'll always be asking, and you'll never build that confidence or experience. I've been doing this 12 years now, and I have certainly not always been perfect. You know, it , it's, sometimes it's been trial and error. Sometimes I have had to just think on my feet. I think that's a huge part of being a florist as as well, you know, you have to think on your feet. We worked with a natural product. Maybe you had planned on using a certain rose because a florist on some Facebook group told you about that particular type of rose because it's the color that you needed for your client, but then what , you know, lo and behold, it's not available at the time of the wedding. You know, you go on your wholesalers web shop and have a look for that rose and it's not there. Or your wholesaler, if you do it the old fashioned way , has emailed you back and said, I'm sorry that Rose , you asked me . The source isn't available. Um, you have to think on your feet. You have to be able to sort of say, right, okay, well, I'll try this instead. That should fulfill the brief. Um, and, and you can't be asking on , on Facebook groups all the time about that. Now, now, in , in terms of my experience as a florist, that that's something I've encountered in the past and maybe the wholesalers have made substitutions on my behalf or , um, uh, you know, or, or I've had to have a look on a web shop and, and just, you know , really use my, my no in my, my brain for those Americans of , or people overseas listening to this , um, to sort of really think about like, okay, what else is gonna fulfill the brief for the client? And I've kind of learned that way most of the time. I've hit the mark of the times I haven't, you know, that's, that's the way it is . Um, you know , just, I would just say finally, remember, you are a creative person with a natural talent as well. You know, this is, this is why you got into floristry in the first place. So I would say just trust that and start using your talent and be fully there for your clients and be fully you. People will book you for you. And , um, yeah, so I hope that over helps . I hope it gives you a bit of, bit of confidence , um, a bit of a nudge in the right direction. Um, I would love to hear your feedback on this one. Please do reach out to me online and, you know, maybe drop me a a a Facebook or Instagram message. Um, you know, dm me on Instagram at the, the , the content quarter , uh, or reach out to me on email, hello at the content quarter dot core uk . Love to hear your feedback on this one and any suggestions for future topics too, as always. So I will leave you at that, my lovelies and , uh, I look forward to seeing you on the next episode. So take care and , uh, flower on. Well , thanks so much for listening all the way to the end of Wedding Florist Social. Remember to hit subscribe so that you don't miss out on any future episodes. And if you want access to some free community and support, then head across to Facebook and look me up on the Worldwide Wedding Florist Community Group. I look forward to seeing you there.