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Business Resilience Strategies: Pivoting Quickly After Failure with Amy McCord · The Growth Class with Phil Masiello

• 0:18
  SPEAKER_00: Welcome back to the growth class.
• 0:20
  SPEAKER_00: Today we're talking about the sheer power of human-led marketing and what happens when you build an e-commerce brand with absolute unapologetic personality.
• 0:29
  SPEAKER_00: And my guest today is Amy McCord, the self-proclaimed proclaimed shouty mastermind behind Flower Moxie.
• 0:40
  SPEAKER_00: And I was amazed.
• 0:41
  SPEAKER_00: We had a conversation, and I'm just amazed at what she's done.
• 0:45
  SPEAKER_00: Now, I've I've spent my entire life building businesses, and I've I've had good ones and I've had bad ones, successes and failures.
• 0:53
  SPEAKER_00: And just what she's done by her creativity and her focus.
• 0:58
  SPEAKER_00: To me, uh, you know, I always talk to entrepreneurs about staying focused and staying away from the bright, shiny things because everybody starts to get all over the place and they lose and they get distracted.
• 1:09
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, she's uh done an incredible job.
• 1:12
  SPEAKER_00: So I I don't want to spend too much time on the intro because I'd I'd rather hear I'd rather you guys hear what she's talking about, what she's done.
• 1:19
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, she's she started out a as a side hustle and turned this into a multimillion dollar e-commerce powerhouse.
• 1:25
  SPEAKER_00: And uh so, you know, she's done it tremendously and and by herself.
• 1:30
  SPEAKER_00: And I think that when you look at the website, when you look at what they do, the creativity that's involved, the the just the beauty of it all, you're gonna be amazed.
• 1:39
  SPEAKER_00: So let's just get right into it.
• 1:41
  SPEAKER_00: Uh you know, Amy, I I don't want to spend a lot of time on the intro.
• 1:44
  SPEAKER_00: I'd rather hear you talk and tell your story.
• 1:46
  SPEAKER_00: So uh welcome and thanks for taking the time.
• 1:50
  SPEAKER_02: Well, thank you for having me.
• 1:51
  SPEAKER_02: Uh, this is truly an honor.
• 1:53
  SPEAKER_02: And it was such a great conversation when we just chatted and an hour went by and uh I I was like, I've got a lot to learn from that, from that fella.
• 2:03
  SPEAKER_00: It was I thought it was a great conversation.
• 2:05
  SPEAKER_00: You got a lot to learn from me.
• 2:06
  SPEAKER_00: I got a lot to learn from you.
• 2:07
  SPEAKER_00: I thought it was fantastic.
• 2:09
  SPEAKER_00: I thought, like I told you on the on the call, uh I think what you've done, just the beauty of it all, it's just uh it's outstanding.
• 2:16
  SPEAKER_00: And just your focus, staying true to your brand, staying true to your identity is something that you don't see.
• 2:22
  SPEAKER_00: People go off all different ways.
• 2:24
  SPEAKER_00: And and I think that one of your one of your, you know, powerhouse skills is is your ability to say, this is who I am, this is what I'm doing, and I'm gonna just gonna continue down this path.
• 2:35
  SPEAKER_00: And it's obviously working for you.
• 2:37
  SPEAKER_02: Well, I mean, it wasn't a straight path.
• 2:39
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, I definitely got uh sometimes I I felt like an emu getting pulled into those different shiny things.
• 2:46
  SPEAKER_02: You know, if you spend any time with an emu or ostrich, they just go for the anything that's shiny.
• 2:50
  SPEAKER_02: I'm a country girl, so you're gonna see these references.
• 2:53
  SPEAKER_02: But uh, I I think an entrepreneur's biggest bias is to action.
• 2:58
  SPEAKER_02: And that's the part you have to like hold yourself back on.
• 3:01
  SPEAKER_02: So I thought I think that's an interesting thing to point out, and it's a great compliment because I get bored easy, entrepreneurs do.
• 3:08
  SPEAKER_02: And you'll get a, you know, an idea and you're like, oh, this is this is great.
• 3:12
  SPEAKER_02: I can see this.
• 3:13
  SPEAKER_02: Um, but I've learned over the years to have processes in place for myself because I've wasted money.
• 3:21
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, we all have going down a path.
• 3:24
  SPEAKER_02: And you're like, man, I could have taken myself somewhere nice.
• 3:30
  SPEAKER_00: Somewhere nice.
• 3:31
  SPEAKER_00: I uh I we do a lot of uh connected TV advertising.
• 3:35
  SPEAKER_00: And, you know, when we talk to clients about it, they talk about TV and traditional TV.
• 3:41
  SPEAKER_00: And I always say, look, I'm gonna tell you, you're looking at a guy who's wasted millions of dollars on television ads and over the years.
• 3:50
  SPEAKER_00: So I don't, you know, and for my own brands, not for my clients, for my own brands.
• 3:55
  SPEAKER_00: So, you know, uh you're looking at somebody who's wasted money more than you could ever imagine.
• 4:01
  SPEAKER_00: It's good to hear.
• 4:04
  SPEAKER_00: We all go through it.
• 4:07
  SPEAKER_00: We all go through it.
• 4:09
  SPEAKER_00: So why don't you though take us back though, how you started this whole thing and and what you did and how you got to where you are today.
• 4:15
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 4:16
  SPEAKER_00: Because I thought your story was interesting.
• 4:18
  SPEAKER_02: Well, I I won't spend most a lot of time on this part, but uh I think it's helpful to explain the other and maybe it will help the listener.
• 4:26
  SPEAKER_02: Um, I started out in forensics and biochemistry.
• 4:29
  SPEAKER_02: I wanted to be a forensic investigator, and my dad was like, oh, Amy.
• 4:33
  SPEAKER_02: And I was like, I know myself.
• 4:35
  SPEAKER_02: I'm 19.
• 4:36
  SPEAKER_02: Um and I got a science degree and realized quickly that I didn't like it.
• 4:41
  SPEAKER_02: And so then it's just a series of trying to figure out, you know, what you don't like.
• 4:46
  SPEAKER_02: And it takes a while to figure out what your talent is.
• 4:49
  SPEAKER_02: And so some people think it's like this ladder or this direct, you know, line to be an entrepreneur, but it kind of develops with a bunch of experiences.
• 4:59
  SPEAKER_02: And so I had some corporate jobs, and uh, what started me down the flower train was this little chapel came for sale in Oklahoma City and I was 25 and I didn't care for my job.
• 5:10
  SPEAKER_02: It was a corporate job.
• 5:11
  SPEAKER_02: And um I thought, well, maybe I can be a wedding planner.
• 5:15
  SPEAKER_02: And I was just taking inspiration off of movies that I saw.
• 5:18
  SPEAKER_02: So I think I had seen The Wedding Planner with J Lo.
• 5:22
  SPEAKER_02: And uh, you know, the chapel was really inexpensive, and but I needed my mom's, you know, help to get it.
• 5:28
  SPEAKER_02: So she actually got the chapel, and my sister and I formed a little business.
• 5:32
  SPEAKER_02: And my first bride uh needed a florist.
• 5:36
  SPEAKER_02: And I thought I had some inside track because I knew that Sam's club sold a bunch of roses for like$100.
• 5:44
  SPEAKER_02: And I was like, and the girl just wanted red roses.
• 5:46
  SPEAKER_02: This is like 07.
• 5:47
  SPEAKER_02: So, you know, expectations were low.
• 5:50
  SPEAKER_02: And um, I was like, oh, I can do this.
• 5:53
  SPEAKER_02: And so I got like 200 red roses, and I thought, man, when she walks in, she's gonna be blown away.
• 5:59
  SPEAKER_02: And most people will think, yeah, that's a lot.
• 6:01
  SPEAKER_02: But if you're a florist, you're like laughing.
• 6:03
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 6:04
  SPEAKER_02: And, you know, my first couple of weddings, I was just terrible, uh, but I charged nothing.
• 6:10
  SPEAKER_02: And I just realized I loved flowers.
• 6:12
  SPEAKER_02: And uh, so I was a wedding planner and floral designer.
• 6:16
  SPEAKER_02: And I was sick of uh after doing that for, you know, uh probably eight years, I was just kind of sick of the grind, the weekend grind.
• 6:23
  SPEAKER_02: And I thought, I want to be challenged, I want something I can scale.
• 6:28
  SPEAKER_02: And at the same time, um, brides were coming to hire me, but they couldn't afford to.
• 6:34
  SPEAKER_02: And I realized I couldn't afford to hire myself.
• 6:36
  SPEAKER_02: If I needed to go hire myself and my dad wasn't helping me with a wedding, I couldn't afford my own services.
• 6:42
  SPEAKER_02: And I want to say it's not because florists charge too much.
• 6:46
  SPEAKER_02: Uh, that's not true.
• 6:46
  SPEAKER_02: It's flowers are expensive.
• 6:48
  SPEAKER_02: And so I thought, well, this is where that little science brain came in.
• 6:53
  SPEAKER_02: I thought, well, I can systemize something and I I love to teach more than I love to design.
• 6:58
  SPEAKER_02: Like I love to, you know, help people through that.
• 7:02
  SPEAKER_02: And um, I thought maybe I can take my business online to help these DIY brides because I was self-taught and I knew I could buy boxes of flowers off the internet, but it came with none guidance.
• 7:16
  SPEAKER_02: And I thought, you know, I can create this to be a lot like blue apron for wedding flowers, where I send them all the bits, um, a tutorial, a recipe, and all the flowers and um the devil's in the details.
• 7:31
  SPEAKER_02: It's in knowing what to get and how much to use, but actually putting together the bouquet is not the sticky wicket of it all, surprisingly.
• 7:41
  SPEAKER_02: And so I started it as a side hustle um to earn an extra$500 a month.
• 7:47
  SPEAKER_02: So, because I like to travel.
• 7:49
  SPEAKER_02: So I was like, well, that will be my little travel money.
• 7:52
  SPEAKER_02: And I created myself a job and then it was a jail for a while.
• 7:56
  SPEAKER_02: I hated my life.
• 7:58
  SPEAKER_02: I I mean, you know, there's a true life cycle of a business.
• 8:01
  SPEAKER_02: And when you have an infant baby business, it's a nightmare.
• 8:05
  SPEAKER_02: You don't get sleep, you cry a lot.
• 8:10
  SPEAKER_02: Um, you're gaining weight.
• 8:13
  SPEAKER_02: Um you know, but I feel like now we're kind of in our prime, about 12 years in.
• 8:18
  SPEAKER_02: So that's kind of how it's how it went down.
• 8:22
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 8:23
  SPEAKER_00: So um can you explain the model a little bit more and and the just point out the website so that people can go to it and then uh sort of explain how how you put this together because I think uh your model for getting the flowers is I th uh unique.
• 8:43
  SPEAKER_00: Most people would think, okay, well, I'm just gonna go to the flower mart locally or to the florist, but you're actually going to the grower.
• 8:52
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, that took a while.
• 8:53
  SPEAKER_02: It had to evolve to that.
• 8:55
  SPEAKER_02: So my two businesses are Flower Moxie um and Petal Icon, which is a newer business that we just launched.
• 9:03
  SPEAKER_02: So how we source our flowers initially is we went to the local wholesalers.
• 9:09
  SPEAKER_02: I had about 80 wholesalers throughout the country who would ship for me or my brides could go pick it up.
• 9:16
  SPEAKER_02: Um, but that business model wasn't sustainable once you really start to scale because the product is going to be different down in Miami versus Green Bay, and you're paying, you know, high prices and the flowers aren't as fresh because they've already been trucked through the United States.
• 9:33
  SPEAKER_02: But you have to get to a point to where you can scale to go down to Ecuador and Colombia, which is where 80% of all flowers come from, and be able to buy from them.
• 9:43
  SPEAKER_02: Um, and you've you've got to wait, you know, several years and set up relationship and you know, um earn earn the right to be able to buy from some really specialty farm.
• 9:53
  SPEAKER_02: So we finally have gotten there.
• 9:55
  SPEAKER_02: Um, and then that's where things really started changing.
• 9:59
  SPEAKER_02: So uh I do use some local growers if they can ship, but like I said, uh the United States isn't a powerhouse for growing florals anymore, and the florals are imported.
• 10:14
  SPEAKER_02: And so um, you know, we they package them up and ship them directly to your door, and it takes a couple days to get there, and we've got a reserve space on the plane, just like all the flowers coming in the US.
• 10:27
  SPEAKER_02: And it was quite a process.
• 10:29
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, I I learned so much, and uh, there's not a farm that we use that I haven't spent time at.
• 10:34
  SPEAKER_02: So if it's a farm I'm going to work with, I fly down there, I spend time, I get to know the family.
• 10:41
  SPEAKER_02: Um, and I want to know what their practices are, the sustainability, because they can, you know, volunteer to qualify for like fair trade, rainforest uh certifications.
• 10:54
  SPEAKER_02: So that's important to me.
• 10:55
  SPEAKER_02: And I just want to make sure that their operations are real clean and that their employees are treated well.
• 11:01
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 11:02
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I was amazed.
• 11:03
  SPEAKER_00: I think I told you that I use books every year uh to send flowers to my daughters uh at Valentine's Day and their birthdays and things like that.
• 11:14
  SPEAKER_00: And it wasn't until this year that I realized that they were shipping the product directly from Columbia to uh their, you know, their dorm rooms or wherever they are.
• 11:26
  SPEAKER_00: And that was what was amazing to me.
• 11:28
  SPEAKER_00: I was like, what?
• 11:28
  SPEAKER_00: I I thought they had a place in uh I thought it was actually I thought it was in New York for some reason.
• 11:34
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know why.
• 11:35
  SPEAKER_00: I think because 800 flowers and I just I always associate that with New York and um so and I thought they had a place and they were putting it together and they'd ship it from there, but yeah, it's amazing to me that that you're able to ship from you know the grower to the end user uh economically.
• 11:55
  SPEAKER_02: Well the this is might be surprising, but it's less expensive for me to ship from Colombia or Ecuador than from Miami to St.
• 12:03
  SPEAKER_02: Augustine.
• 12:04
  SPEAKER_02: So if I'm shipping from Colombia, you know, the box that you're getting from the books, uh the shipping fee of that would be about$35.
• 12:14
  SPEAKER_02: And if they're shipping from, let's say, Miami to you up up north, it would easily be$70,$80.
• 12:23
  SPEAKER_02: Um, so that's that's another reason I had a shift to um not using wholesalers is I needed the shipping price stability.
• 12:32
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 12:32
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 12:33
  SPEAKER_00: Even uh uh so are there uh were were the flowers hit by tariffs coming in from the Yes, that really impacted us this past year.
• 12:43
  SPEAKER_02: So we didn't experience really uh I can't remember now, but I mean there wasn't hardly any tariffs uh before because they had set up trade agreements with these countries, and that's what happened in the nineties with George Bush is these trade agreements were set up to reduce the drugs and to increase agriculture, and that's why flowers kind of left the US But yeah, we didn't experience tariffs until recently.
• 13:13
  SPEAKER_00: So the other thing that I was really happy to see on your website, because I I keep going on about the creativity because I think it's beautiful.
• 13:21
  SPEAKER_00: I I think that both of your sites really um get across a unique uh quality and a unique um uh eye when you're doing it.
• 13:33
  SPEAKER_00: And today I'm an advocate of I'm an advocate of AI, right?
• 13:38
  SPEAKER_00: For certain things, for uh data analytics, no question.
• 13:44
  SPEAKER_00: For ideation, no question, right?
• 13:47
  SPEAKER_00: For even for for some some content generation, I am not a fan of AI for creating video or creating images.
• 13:57
  SPEAKER_00: I think consumers, and we see it today with a lot of brands that are you know going against AI slop, and I agree with it, because you can't be authentic and you can't say that you know my brand is authentic and this is me and this is what I'm all about, and then put up some AI slop.
• 14:12
  SPEAKER_00: It just doesn't work, right?
• 14:13
  SPEAKER_00: You're you're damaging your brand.
• 14:15
  SPEAKER_00: People don't listen.
• 14:16
  SPEAKER_00: And I've I've made videos about it, I've talked about it, you know, and I'm not the only one.
• 14:20
  SPEAKER_00: You got big brands out there like American Eagle and places like that that are that are against AI slop in in uh in advertising.
• 14:27
  SPEAKER_00: And so I was so happy to see your images because people can't, there's no question when they look at those images that they know that they're real because the background isn't perfect.
• 14:38
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, there's flaws.
• 14:39
  SPEAKER_00: And but it's at those flaws, you know, just make it beautiful.
• 14:43
  SPEAKER_00: And and I I you know, I think I said to you, wow, you must have like a great designer.
• 14:48
  SPEAKER_00: And you were like, no, we do that.
• 14:50
  SPEAKER_00: We do it here.
• 14:50
  SPEAKER_00: We, you know, I do it.
• 14:52
  SPEAKER_00: I'd say this, this is what I want.
• 14:54
  SPEAKER_00: And I think that that's so refreshing that you know so clearly who you are and what you want, and that reflects in the brand because a lot of brands sort of push things off and say, Well, you're the photographer, you do it.
• 15:09
  SPEAKER_00: You're the, you know.
• 15:11
  SPEAKER_00: So I think that that, you know, you uh you have a lot of control over that brand and that brand image.
• 15:18
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, well, for one, thank you.
• 15:19
  SPEAKER_02: I uh it was so interesting when when we had our conversation before today.
• 15:24
  SPEAKER_02: You made the comment, you said I didn't know if this was AI, and I was looking at the curtains, and then I started seeing the imperfections, and I had never considered that before.
• 15:32
  SPEAKER_02: Uh and I remember I asked the photographer, I was like, Can you smooth out some of the, you know, it's hard to get those velvet curtains looking good.
• 15:39
  SPEAKER_02: But I mean, AI is definitely the wild west.
• 15:44
  SPEAKER_02: But I I would say that how it started was I didn't have a budget.
• 15:49
  SPEAKER_02: You know, I started my business without any kind of contribution or investor or loan.
• 15:55
  SPEAKER_02: And so, you know, I just it makes you really, really scrappy.
• 15:59
  SPEAKER_02: And so because I was a florist, I would make all my designs in my living room and shoot them all around my house.
• 16:05
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, what was embarrassing is I was like the bride in my first like shoots, and I was like, don't get my face.
• 16:12
  SPEAKER_02: That's so embarrassing.
• 16:13
  SPEAKER_02: But I would like put on a wedding dress and hold my bouquet.
• 16:16
  SPEAKER_02: Uh, so a lot of that originated from just not having the money.
• 16:20
  SPEAKER_02: But now that I have the money, I wouldn't, I just wouldn't feel like it was mine if I wasn't in there making like I don't make all the bouquets.
• 16:28
  SPEAKER_02: We're all in there um, you know, elbows deep in flowers, and I'm surrounded by some really talented designers.
• 16:36
  SPEAKER_02: But yeah, I I couldn't imagine not being at a shoot, not um being involved, not making the flowers.
• 16:45
  SPEAKER_02: And then you hire people that uh that you trust that understand the way that you work, and I like it to feel playful and not too stuffy.
• 16:55
  SPEAKER_02: And I think that's one thing about the floral industry and the wedding industry in general is that um unless you have a huge budget, I think that they're pr kind of prone to making you feel like you don't belong.
• 17:07
  SPEAKER_02: And uh that's what I wanted to change.
• 17:11
  SPEAKER_02: And that's, you know, why we tell you on the homepage that we're not gonna leave you with your boobs flapping in the wind, you know, like we we use some playful copy.
• 17:19
  SPEAKER_02: Uh, and it's just to make it approachable without trying to be too try-hard, but to make people feel included.
• 17:26
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 17:27
  SPEAKER_00: Well, I think that's important.
• 17:28
  SPEAKER_00: I do, I do agree with you that there's a lot of brands out there that try to be too stuffy.
• 17:33
  SPEAKER_00: And I also think that uh one of the things that you talked about is that you know, you like the flower part, you like the de the uh arranging part.
• 17:42
  SPEAKER_00: And I think every founder of every business has something that they want to keep their hands in even as the business grows.
• 17:50
  SPEAKER_00: For me, it's analytics just because I love I I love figuring out the unknown in the number, you know, because you can look at all this data and it tells you a story, but there's always something that's missing, and that's what I'm always looking for.
• 18:04
  SPEAKER_00: Like, what's missing in the data that we can't see that we have to figure out?
• 18:08
  SPEAKER_00: And that's the part that I love.
• 18:10
  SPEAKER_00: And and and I think every founder that I've ever met, designers, right, they want to keep their hands in the design, even though they're running the business and they're they're they're the builder of the house or the architect of the house.
• 18:24
  SPEAKER_00: They want to keep their hands in certain certain areas.
• 18:27
  SPEAKER_00: And I think it reflects in the brand when you do that.
• 18:31
  SPEAKER_00: Um, I think it reflects positively in the brand, and I think consumers see it, and that's what they respond to, right?
• 18:37
  SPEAKER_00: They they want to connect.
• 18:39
  SPEAKER_00: What I know about consumers is they they want to connect with the brand.
• 18:42
  SPEAKER_00: They want to know who the person is that they're buying from and who they're giving their money to, and they don't want it to be some faceless person.
• 18:49
  SPEAKER_00: So when you can be sort of authentic and also a little bit flawed, they actually like that, you know?
• 18:56
  SPEAKER_00: When you're too perfect, they don't like it.
• 18:59
  SPEAKER_00: And this is where I think AI falls apart because consumers are not stupid.
• 19:04
  SPEAKER_00: They see that, and the minute they see that you're sitting there put, you know, doing I mean when you think about it fundamentally, uh, these people that are putting out you user-generated content generated by AI, and you think, okay, user-generated content is supposed to be an independent person telling you about the brand, but now you're telling UGC, you're telling AI what to say and what to do and how to build it, and you think that's authentic, you think that's good.
• 19:32
  SPEAKER_00: And so I think that's going to come to bite a lot of brands in the butt.
• 19:35
  SPEAKER_00: You could destroy your brand very quickly by doing stupid things like that.
• 19:39
  SPEAKER_00: You know, you have to, you, you have to keep certain, you keep AI where it belongs, which is in process, you know, simplifying processes and and using it for, you know, whatever tools you you may need on the back end.
• 19:53
  SPEAKER_00: But consumer facing has to be you, it has to be the founder, you know, it has to be authentic.
• 19:59
  SPEAKER_02: I agree.
• 20:00
  SPEAKER_02: I think people, I think brands are trying to learn.
• 20:02
  SPEAKER_02: I think that, you know, they're also struggling of like, okay, let's try to, you know, bring our costs down.
• 20:08
  SPEAKER_02: And it's this new tool that is kind of exciting everybody.
• 20:12
  SPEAKER_02: Um, but I think that they are learning of like, ah, this isn't, this isn't a good thing.
• 20:18
  SPEAKER_02: And I mean, I've I've used it like we used it today.
• 20:21
  SPEAKER_02: We uh shot this collection and it was for like a baby shower type of flower bar situation, and we were gonna sell it with some blue carnations, and we realized the customers weren't loving that, and we're like, we need to swap that out for blue delphinium.
• 20:36
  SPEAKER_02: So we threw our photo into AI, which we're like, oh, and you know, we were like, can you swap this out?
• 20:41
  SPEAKER_02: Let's see what it looks like.
• 20:42
  SPEAKER_02: And it was done perfectly as far as, you know, it was still our other flowers, but it changed that out where we weren't gonna be able to achieve that with Photoshop.
• 20:51
  SPEAKER_02: And so, you know, um, but as a as a rule, you don't want to, you know, delegate your creativity to AI.
• 20:59
  SPEAKER_02: No.
• 20:59
  SPEAKER_02: And now when I look at a brand and I I mean, you you're right, consumers know I can tell, I can see it, and it's just like a cringe.
• 21:07
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, it's a cringe.
• 21:09
  SPEAKER_00: We we use it to cut it up into smaller chunks so that we can put it on social and things like that.
• 21:14
  SPEAKER_00: No question.
• 21:14
  SPEAKER_00: It's it it's a heck of a lot quicker, but we're not gonna sit there and modify the person or modify the backgrounds.
• 21:21
  SPEAKER_00: You know, the background has to be what the background is, and uh, you know, we don't like fake backgrounds to begin with, so they don't show up very well.
• 21:29
  SPEAKER_00: So anyway, um that's my rant on AI.
• 21:32
  SPEAKER_00: But um Yeah, so we have about uh uh closing about five minutes.
• 21:37
  SPEAKER_00: Uh you know, any I I think that you have a very good perspective on what it takes to be an entrepreneur, even though uh you didn't set out to necessarily be one.
• 21:49
  SPEAKER_00: Like I set out to be one when I was young.
• 21:52
  SPEAKER_00: I said, I'm gonna, this is what I'm gonna do.
• 21:54
  SPEAKER_00: Of course, I failed on my first attempt, but you know, it was brutal.
• 21:58
  SPEAKER_00: But I learned from that.
• 21:59
  SPEAKER_00: But but you sort of did what you love to do, you found this thing that you love to do.
• 22:04
  SPEAKER_00: And I think that's really important.
• 22:07
  SPEAKER_00: So I don't know if you can expand on that or talk about that for because I th I think it's inspiring.
• 22:14
  SPEAKER_00: Personally I think it's inspiring.
• 22:17
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 22:17
  SPEAKER_02: I th uh that's so interesting.
• 22:22
  SPEAKER_02: So one thing is I never encourage somebody to like chase their passion as a business.
• 22:31
  SPEAKER_02: I'm sure that you've probably feel the same way.
• 22:34
  SPEAKER_02: You know, sometimes you don't want to monetize the thing that you love.
• 22:36
  SPEAKER_02: Like I love to throw pottery but I would kill the thing that I loved if I did it to try to make money at it.
• 22:43
  SPEAKER_02: I do really enjoy flowers.
• 22:45
  SPEAKER_02: Um but I think that it's a matter of making mistakes.
• 22:49
  SPEAKER_02: Like your first business you threw everything at it it wasn't a success but you know it paid for itself because the amount of lessons that you have I think it's a matter of really keeping your priorities straight in your head.
• 23:04
  SPEAKER_02: I I always tell any business owner like before you start your business you need to understand where your priorities sit with money, time, uh creative freedom and impact.
• 23:16
  SPEAKER_02: Those to me are these important four motivators.
• 23:21
  SPEAKER_02: And when you want money, then you're going to have to release wanting a bunch of um creative freedom only taking the projects that you want.
• 23:30
  SPEAKER_02: When I was a wedding planner and a florist I would I would learn any style of floristry where some of my fellow florists they they're like I don't I won't book something if they want like roundy mounty.
• 23:41
  SPEAKER_02: I'm not doing that.
• 23:41
  SPEAKER_02: It's like why?
• 23:42
  SPEAKER_02: But their priority was creative freedom and that wasn't mine.
• 23:46
  SPEAKER_02: Mine was money.
• 23:47
  SPEAKER_02: I wanted to you know have my 50 weddings a year.
• 23:50
  SPEAKER_02: So I think that it's important to like identify that.
• 23:53
  SPEAKER_02: And for flower moxie I I didn't want to work on the weekends.
• 23:57
  SPEAKER_02: I wanted something that I could scale I knew that you know my body isn't meant to hang off the ladders and you know later in life.
• 24:04
  SPEAKER_02: And so I was trying to like create a different career path.
• 24:07
  SPEAKER_02: And sometimes you just got to fumble your way through it.
• 24:09
  SPEAKER_02: And I think that if it's an idea that won't leave your brain in the middle of the night, then you need to like lean into that.
• 24:17
  SPEAKER_02: And I think that so many people are looking to make money and looking for that thing that hits rather than the thing that's like they're interested in.
• 24:27
  SPEAKER_02: And it all boils down to is there an actual need for it?
• 24:33
  SPEAKER_02: There was a need for DIY wedding flowers done well with hand holding.
• 24:38
  SPEAKER_02: Like you could buy boxes of flowers online but it wasn't done in a way that would actually help a consumer and I saw that hole um and I was like okay I intend to you know bridge the gap on that and I think a lot of folks getting their MBA they come out with a student loans and a shiny degree but they miss that piece of like did you are you solving a real problem or are you just chasing something that sounds cool.
• 25:07
  SPEAKER_00: I agree with you.
• 25:07
  SPEAKER_00: I mean I again I do a lot of coaching with entrepreneurs and so many come up with these plans and I think their direction is a little bit off.
• 25:17
  SPEAKER_00: I can never say and I don't ever want to say your idea is flawed or wrong or you're going about this wrong.
• 25:24
  SPEAKER_00: I just try to guide them into success one way or the other.
• 25:28
  SPEAKER_00: And sometimes success is abandoning your idea because you know you you it's never gonna it's never going to work if you just think it's gonna if you're trying to just make money with it.
• 25:40
  SPEAKER_00: And I've you know I I've founded a bunch of businesses I've never the ones that I failed at were the ones that I just should never have been involved in.
• 25:51
  SPEAKER_00: I except for the first one.
• 25:52
  SPEAKER_00: The first one was the concept was great.
• 25:54
  SPEAKER_00: It was my leadership and my process management that killed it.
• 25:58
  SPEAKER_00: But the ones that I failed at, I always I got this you know this puffy chest because I had a great success.
• 26:04
  SPEAKER_00: I was like I could market anything and then you know you get into fashion somebody says oh you know I need a fashion ah please I can do that.
• 26:12
  SPEAKER_00: And then I can I can barely dress myself and then you know it failed.
• 26:16
  SPEAKER_00: It failed because I I had no passion for it.
• 26:18
  SPEAKER_00: I don't understand that business.
• 26:20
  SPEAKER_00: You know you have to really understand what's going to happen 16 months from now or 18 months from now in terms of colors and styles and things like that.
• 26:28
  SPEAKER_00: So those were the types of things I failed at.
• 26:31
  SPEAKER_00: And it always happened that I I got into something that I shouldn't have gotten into.
• 26:35
  SPEAKER_00: But the ones that I had, you know, like you said an idea in my head that it wouldn't leave me in the middle of the night, those are the ones that were always you know successful.
• 26:44
  SPEAKER_00: So that stick.
• 26:45
  SPEAKER_00: I think that's a great great piece of advice.
• 26:47
  SPEAKER_02: And at the end of the day I don't think there's like this perfect recipe.
• 26:50
  SPEAKER_02: I mean I'm sure you've heard of business ideas that you're like oh that's a fluff and it does great.
• 26:55
  SPEAKER_02: And some that you think man you are going to just you're you have a cash cow coming your way and it fails.
• 27:02
  SPEAKER_02: It's kind of like a relationship, you know it's like you use your best judgment and sometimes it's just not going to work and you I think in order to be a good leader, an entrepreneur, um, you got to be able to pivot quickly and you have to be able to if you take a hit you can't if you're if you're one of those people that get daubered down for weeks on end when you have a failure and you just beat yourself up it's gonna be a long journey.
• 27:28
  SPEAKER_02: You have to like you as like Ted lasso you you do have to have the memory of a goldfish and you got to bounce back quick because you know you will get your ass handed to you a couple times.
• 27:39
  SPEAKER_00: That's true.
• 27:42
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 27:43
  SPEAKER_00: All right well we're out of time and that's a wrap on today's episode uh you know a massive thank you to uh Amy McCord for for you know sharing your the reality of what you're building.
• 27:55
  SPEAKER_00: Um you know again what stands out to me is your approach uh and your you just your mastery of of outcome-based messaging I am a big fan of I and I the thing that people miss in marketing is that consumers don't buy features and they don't buy the product they're buying the outcome what's it going to do for them and you know you're 100% right to the the the ability to take like a brew a blue apron approach to flowers I'm sure well it's obvious it's a multimillion dollar business people gravitated towards so you know check out both websites can which what what are the two websites flowermoxy and flowermoxy.com and pedalicon.com pedalicons so um yeah check them out and uh grin thanks for coming on the show thanks for taking the time and uh thank you we will see you next time