93
Let’s hear the story of Nebraska, its communities, its number one industry Agriculture, and the people who make it happen. Sponsored by Nebraska's Law Firm® - Rembolt Ludtke.
93
Morgan Bonifas--Cultivating Entrepreneurship in Nebraska
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In this episode we sit down with Morgan Bonifas, a young entrepreneur from Hamilton County, Nebraska whose business journey began at just three years old and continues to grow today. What started as an early spark for selling and creating eventually blossomed into Morgan’s Mums & More, a thriving seasonal business she launched while still in high school. From learning the intricacies of planting and pinching to navigating sales and customer demand, Morgan has cultivated more than just beautiful fall flowers—she’s built real-world business experience. Now a student at the University of Nebraska–Lincoln and enrolled in the Engler Agribusiness Entrepreneurship Program, she continues to run and expand her operation while pursuing her education, proving that with vision and grit, you’re never too young—or too busy—to grow something remarkable.
It's not just a play, but a way of life. It's 93 gobs. Better home and innovative individuals. Welcome.
SPEAKER_01Welcome to 93. This is a podcast about Nebraska, its communities, its number one industry agriculture, the folks who make it happen. Today's episode is sponsored by Nebraska's law firm, Rembolt Luxie. I'm Mark Falson, one of your hosts for today's episode, and I'm joined by my Rembolt colleague and co-host, Tara Paulson.
SPEAKER_02Thank you, Mark. I am here to help cultivate the conversation. Today's guest proves that you're never too young to grow something big. Literally. Our guest started her first business when she was just three years old and founded Morgan's Mums and More in her teens. From planting and pinching to selling and scaling, she has turned a seasonal flower into a full-blown entrepreneurial journey.
SPEAKER_01Morgan Boniface, welcome to 93 the podcast. Tell folks about yourself.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, my name is Morgan Boniface. I'm from Aurora, Nebraska, born and raised on a small little operation just outside of town. I grew up, I started a pumpkin patch with my old two older brothers and my parents when I was three years old, where we uh grew and sold specialty pumpkins and gourds.
SPEAKER_01Wait, you started a business when you were three?
SPEAKER_03Yeah. So my mom was tired of paying so much money to go to a pumpkin patch and thought we could do it better ourselves. So she classified it as our college fund. Um, and so from the age of three to the age of 18, I grew and sell pumpkins every single fall.
SPEAKER_02So between you and your brothers, who had the heaviest load for the pumpkin patch operation?
SPEAKER_03Oh, for sure, me, because they're four and six years older than me. And so when they went to college, they like were like Sayonara, I'm not dealing with this. So I did it. I mean, they came back and helped a little bit here too. Did they want the money though? Oh, for sure. Yeah. For sure. That was their favorite part of the year was that paycheck at the end of in the beginning of November. That was like the best day of our lives every year. So, but yeah, I that was a lot in being a full-time high school student. And then I also um going into my freshman year of high school, started a flower business growing and selling fall mums, specializing in multicolor mums. So not only was I running a pumpkin patch, I was also running a flower business and playing softball all at the same time, and being a student and everything else that comes with being in high school. So that was pretty crazy, but really grateful to have all those experiences.
SPEAKER_01So, Aurora, what county is that?
SPEAKER_03We are in Hamilton County, so number 28.
SPEAKER_01That's the license plate. That's uh that's you are our first Hamilton County guest, I I believe. So thank you for coming on. So uh you've got two brothers, correct?
SPEAKER_03Yeah.
SPEAKER_01And were you involved in FFA when you were in high school?
SPEAKER_03Yeah, so being involved in FFA was a huge part of my F or my high school career. Um, I did about everything you could imagine. I served as a chapter officer. I was a national proficiency finalist in specialty crop for my mom, um Morgan Morgan's Mum's and More business. And so that was really cool.
SPEAKER_01You also got the American uh degree, correct?
SPEAKER_03Yeah, I received that in this last fall. Actually, that's a big deal.
SPEAKER_01Congratulations on that.
SPEAKER_03Thank you.
SPEAKER_01So you played sports too?
SPEAKER_03Yeah. I played softball, basketball, and then I ran track for three years and played soccer for a year.
SPEAKER_01So I know Tara has some opinions on the value of sports and the lessons learned.
SPEAKER_02Absolutely. Especially if you have those opportunities to play team sports. I think that there's lots of lessons you can take from that that both help you in school and then life after school as well.
SPEAKER_03Oh yeah, for sure. It was super fun to be on that side and be able to be an athlete and then get to step away from that. It was kind of nice in college too.
SPEAKER_02What did you like better, team sports or individual sports? You said you did track for a couple years too.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, I ran distance and track, so it was kind of like a team sport because we all ran together every day. Um, but I liked the team sports of like softball and basketball, where we're like all there for like one common good and not competing against each other.
SPEAKER_01So uh you graduate from high school. Uh did you participate in NAYI?
SPEAKER_03Yes.
SPEAKER_01I was What is that, by the way?
SPEAKER_03Yeah, NAYI is called there's the Nebraska Agricultural Youth Institute. It's a conference here at UNL on East Campus for a week every summer for high school juniors and seniors who are interested in agriculture. It brings them the opportunity to um attend as delegates as a junior, and then the possibility to apply to be a returning delegate, which is just a little bit more of a leadership role as is after your senior year of high school. And we have so many opportunities for students to explore different careers in ag, hear from all of the different commodity boards, all the different livestock groups, pretty much anything related to agriculture, we probably have it, including like grapes and like wineries, all the way to like potato boards, corn, soybeans, cows, chickens, like everything.
SPEAKER_01You know, I learned how to make an omelet at NAYI.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, there's also like a lot of like personal development. So we have like resume labs.
SPEAKER_01I needed a lot of that.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, it's super fun. And it's super fun now to serve as then on the NAYC so the Nebraska Agricultural Youth Council, um, which is for college students, and we get to lead the conference, and so it was super cool to see that kind of transpire from the behind the scenes part and be able to put that conference on for students now.
SPEAKER_01You're now at UNL. Tell us about what's keeping you busy.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, so I am a sophomore at UNL currently studying ag communications with minors in agribusiness, the Angler Entrepreneurship Program, and horticulture. Um, I'm involved in the Angler program. I serve on the recruitment team currently, so I get to help bring in new students to our program. I'm on or involved in the Collegiate Farm Bureau chapter. Um, super excited to do that. I got to attend the Nebraska Farm Bureau annual meeting last December and serve as a voting delegate. So it was super cool to be able to have an impact on the different policies that the Farm Bureau can stand on throughout the year. And I'm also um on the NAYC, like I said, and then also very active in the Newman Center.
SPEAKER_02Tell us a little bit about the Engler program, what you do with that program. I heard you say that you do some recruiting efforts for them. What should podcast listeners know about the Engler program from you?
SPEAKER_03Yeah, the Angler program is such a cool opportunity. Um, it started by Paul Angler, who was a young boy. And one day his dad was off on some work and he decided he wanted to go to the sale barn and started and bought some cows without permission from his parents. And he became one of the biggest feed law operators in the United States, um, one of the biggest ones here in Nebraska, and he also had one in Texas later on in life. And so he generously donated the funds for the Engler program, which is centered on entrepreneurship. Um, so students will start out taking the 101 class where they get to experience more of the development of the entrepreneurial mindset, and then they can work their way through the rest of the classes. Um that goes to the 201 class, which is called the$50 business venture class. So they get$50 and told to start a business in one semester and hopefully succeed. Sometimes people fail, but what do you do? You're out$50 and you don't have to give that back, which is super cool. And then you go to like$388, which has the um customer discovery, and$488, which is more on the financials. Um, for me, because I came in with a business already established, I was able to kind of like skip around and do what I wanted to do. I everybody starts in the one-on-one class, but then from there, I've been able to go to Enterprise Studio. So it's basically like an incubant. So instead of doing homework assignments and like different things in class, we get to go to class every other week and listen to different speakers from people how to start an LLC, how to start a business bank account, things like that. And then we also on the off weeks, we meet with a business coach to kind of get some coaching in that. And then we have the time to work on our businesses instead of homework assignments.
SPEAKER_01What let me guess. Well, I'm not going to guess. What are your businesses that you're currently using for your projects for Angler?
SPEAKER_03Yeah, so I'm continuing Morgan's Mums and More. I've been adding new things throughout my time in Angler. So this upcoming spring, I'll be offering custom planters and for the spring season and then continue with the fall mums and custom planters in the fall, and then also adding winter custom planters with like greenery for around Christmas time. And then I also recently launched a podcast editing business called MB Editing, where I'm doing podcast editing and other social media kind of editing works.
SPEAKER_02Okay, so maybe first question that I have not on the list uh necessarily, but is what is harder? Keeping mums alive or keeping grades up?
SPEAKER_03Um probably mums alive. I don't I I mean everybody, Ag Communications has that little stigma behind it. It's like the easiest degree on campus. But I love doing all that kind of stuff. So it's like super easy for me to just like jump in and do all of that. Um, I've also always been a person that loves to learn. And so like going to class is not, I mean, some days you don't want to go to class, obviously, but it's not something that I'm like, oh, I have to go to class, I have to do my homework. It's something that I enjoy doing. I like to learn new things and new perspectives. Um, surprisingly, with the way I answered that, I've never, well, I've only killed mums like a few times. So, like, considering I've grown mums for five years, almost going on my sixth year here, like I've only killed maybe like 50 pots, which when I'm growing like 200 right now, it's not that big. Like, that's not that many.
SPEAKER_01So, yeah, you got to give us a story of what happened on those 50 pots.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, so this was like um a great learning experience for me. Um, one year it got super hot and it stayed super hot, and the nighttime temperatures never dropped. And so with mums, they need that nighttime temperature to cool down so that they can cool off their roots in the soil. And so I didn't really know this about the time, but you're supposed to water mums in the middle of the afternoon, not in the morning time like you typically would like other plants. So you're supposed to water them in the middle of the afternoon to give them like a break from the heat. The water cools down the soil, and I wasn't doing that, I was watering them in the morning thinking I knew what I was doing, but um the roots overheated, and so what happened is they got fascilium wilt root rot. So they just started to rot and say that really fast. Can you say that fast? Good for you. But yeah, so they all just kind of like disintegrated kind of kind of thing. And then if you don't have roots, you obviously don't have a plant. So yeah, that was a big learning experience. It only hit like 20 of my pots, which I got really lucky with, but it was a lot when I was not growing as many pots.
SPEAKER_02So tell us how Morgan's mums and more started.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, so it started in like April of 2020, which is the COVID pandemic. Um, I was bored. I obviously obviously you can probably tell I love to do like be busy and have a lot of things to do. And my mom always said that we couldn't, we could all use our pumpkin patch for our FFA project, but we needed to start something else on our own. So I was an eighth grader at the time, and I was like, well, I don't know what I want to do. Like, I don't know. I always I've always loved flowers. Like it's just always been something I love to do. I love to go to the greenhouses. I loved helping my mom with all of her flower pots. And my mom just kind of recommended this, and I looked into it a little bit and I was like, oh, this sounds not not that bad, except the order deadline was like two days ago. So I called the people up and they're like, oh yeah, you can still order. So it just happened to kind of work out, and I started it right then and there and never looked back.
SPEAKER_01Why moms?
SPEAKER_03Um, because they were the only thing I could order in March. But it also was really complimentary to the pumpkin patch. So um complimentary businesses add more customers. Um, people came out looking for a mum and then they went home with some pumpkins as well, or vice versa, and so it helped both businesses.
SPEAKER_01So for someone who has no flower background, well explain what a mum is. Can you describe it?
SPEAKER_03Yeah, mums are those flowers that you see in the fall. So they're just like typically in smaller pots and they have a little bit more compact of a bud, but like the best mums are the ones that are like fully covered in color. So you won't really see any of the leaves, you'll just see the mum flower.
SPEAKER_02Do you have a favorite variety of mums?
SPEAKER_03Yeah, my favorite are the Ghostbuster, which are the only color of or variety of mums that I've carried all five years. They um are purple, white, and yellow, all three colors in one pot, which is what I specialize in is the multicolor. So three colors in one pot. Um, but I also do offer single color.
SPEAKER_01Do you start with seed or or seedlings?
SPEAKER_03So I get them in as plugs, so they're about one or two inches tall and about the size of like roundness of a quarter. And then I um that happens in like the very beginning of June. I stick them in plots, fertilize, and grow them all summer long. Um, last year was my first year with an automatic watering system, which that was amazing. That was the best thing ever. Because in the fall, when I had to go back to school, I clicked a bone a button on my phone every day and it started watering. So that was awesome. Um, and so they grow all summer long and then um I sell them in September, October, basically. Yeah.
SPEAKER_01Tell us about that watering system. Is it is it drip irrigation or how's it work?
SPEAKER_03Yeah, so basically we have a hose that runs from the hydrant over to the cement pad where I grow my mums on because mums need air movement. They cannot sit in a greenhouse, it gets too hot, and they don't have enough movement around their leaves. So the hose runs from the hydrant to the pad. It goes up through my fertilization machine and then back down. It goes through a PVC pipe, and then from the PVC pipe, there's a bunch of lines of drip irrigation. Um, so from I have two sizes of pots. For my big pots, we use what's called spaghetti straws. And each, they're like little tiny straws that kind of flum around like spaghetti. They come out of the irrigation like drip line and they go into the like little stakes into the pot, and then that's how that drips out of those. And then for my small pots, I have space it drip lines. So every 18 inches there is a drip irrigation emitter, and so it just falls straight into the pot. So all my pots are exactly the same spacing around.
SPEAKER_01I would not so they they're never in a greenhouse?
SPEAKER_03Um, no, not really. So when we get them in, they're well like so we get them from a broker, so when I get them in, they're grown from like seedling up to the where I get them in as plugs in the greenhouse. And then when I get them in, I plant them. I keep them on a trailer until the first of July to get through the June storms so that because they don't need as much room in June June, so I can keep them compact on a trailer. And then I just send them on the trailer, and then in the first of July they start to get too big, and the main threat of the storms is over already. So then I space them out and put them on that drip irrigation line.
SPEAKER_02So how many pots do you usually have to sell come fall pumpkin patch time?
SPEAKER_03Yeah, so we have about 200 pots, about 175 to 200 is what I've um had the last few years. Starting out though, in 2020 I only had about 50. So I've had quite a bit of growth.
SPEAKER_01How do you market them?
SPEAKER_03Yeah, so I use social media, especially Facebook and Instagram, or like my main two avenues, and then word of mouth. Um it was pretty easy to get word of mouth out when you had a pumpkin patch, but since we've gotten rid of the pumpkin patch, it's just been mostly uh Facebook and social and Instagram.
SPEAKER_01I think uh when you and I first met, I heard an innovative story about you that you saw an opportunity to Husker Harvest Days. Explain.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, so I was walking around Husker Harvest Days as like a junior, I think, in high school. And I was like, oh wow, all these places have mums, and I'm like the mom expert. So like why am I not selling my moms here? Like these are crappy mums. They're probably from like Walmart or some store that doesn't really know what they're doing. So I reached out to a few businesses and I've been selling them mums at Husker Harvest Days ever since.
SPEAKER_01And so they they use them in their trade booths, right? So they go, they have their tractors displayed and their implements and they want to make it look pretty, and now they're using your moms.
SPEAKER_03Yeah. So it's super cool to walk around and see that.
SPEAKER_02What did your teachers first think when you started this business in eighth grade?
SPEAKER_03Um my teachers were very hands-off. Um they didn't really have a very big impact in this. And I I think it was something that was almost kind of expected almost for me that I had this like big, big dream because uh it's pretty unusual that a kid's had a business since they were three. I don't know very many other people that can say that. And so that and then just knowing my other older brothers, um, one of them had honeybees, so that was a pretty cool business. And so I think they were just kind of expecting something else cool to come out of me.
SPEAKER_01And it has.
SPEAKER_03Yeah. Luckily it hasn't failed me yet.
SPEAKER_01So was there a point in which you the kind of light bulb went off? You said, boy, this could actually be a real business.
SPEAKER_03Yeah. So I have also worked at Wildwoods Greenhouse throughout high school, which is in Central City. So um, where I live, it's like halfway between Central City and Aurora. So I just drove to Central City every Saturday and Sunday while I was in school, and then every day throughout the summer, and I worked at the greenhouse, and I just loved it. It was just like who wouldn't want to play in the dirt and like smell the flowers every day? And that was just awesome. And it kind of just, I don't know if there was a specific point exactly, but it kind of just dawned on me some at some point that like I'm doing the same thing just on a smaller scale, and like eventually that one day that could be me.
SPEAKER_01Do you hope that to be true?
SPEAKER_03Yeah, I would love to open a greenhouse. That's one of my biggest goals in life.
SPEAKER_02Can you think of any oops moment that you've had since starting What Morgan's Mums and More?
SPEAKER_03Yeah, I think when I first had Pasillian wilt rot that first year, or not that first year, but it was like the second or third year of growing. And that at that point, I thought I was pretty invincible before that because I I never like I only killed like one pot of mums in my first year. I was like, I have the greenest thumb around, like I can't kill anything. And that happened, I was like, oh, okay, so I'm not invincible. I have a lot to learn, and it was a great learning experience. It was great to learn young and to learn fast, but it was something I also was able to connect with so many people. I was able to work with a plant pathologist at UNL to go through all the testing. I mean, we kind of three searched it and knew that was what happened, but we wanted to know for sure. So we sent off some samples to the lab and they researched it, which was really cool. Um, and then when I was a national finalist, I got to um be on the like Student Spotlight Center. And so I got to give a presentation to a bunch of other FFA students from around the country about my project. And um I was able to learn or talk to one of the people who was moderating it, was um from somewhere out on the West Coast. I don't remember exactly where he was from anymore, but he was um did a lot of research in that too. And so I was able to talk with him afterwards and just like talk about my experience and like what I learned from it. And that was just super, a super cool connection to make.
SPEAKER_01Do you have to prune moms?
SPEAKER_03Um, so not technically. Um in Nebraska, we are in a zone where mums are like technically not a perennial. Um, they do come back more often than not, but they're not a really considered a hardy perennial. They're called a soft perennial. So like if we have a hard winter, they're probably not gonna come back. Or if we have a weird winter like this where it's like hot and then cold and hot and cold and it can't decide what it wants to do and 60 degrees in January, and then it's zero degrees and all of that. It's they're not as sturdy of a perennial where they are probably not gonna come back. Um, one thing with mums too is their their bloom time is based off of the nighttime temperatures. And so sometimes if we get like a cold streak in June, that'll trigger them to start blooming already in July, which is something that's not great as an owner because you don't want them to bloom before your customers are ready to buy them because they only bloom once a year. And so um, if that happens, I have to go out there and pinch all the buds, which takes a long time when you're going on 200 pots. Um, but it's just something I have to do.
SPEAKER_01So they only bloom once a year. So if they bloom early, you your product is gonna be kind of hard to sell, right?
SPEAKER_03Yeah, so they only bloom once a year, but if the blooms don't open, then you can like get it to stop. So that's what you do is just pluck the blooms off and then they'll stop for a little bit and then they'll put some more blooms on, you gotta pluck them off again. It's just kind of a never-ending process until it ends up in your customer's plans.
SPEAKER_01How did you learn that?
SPEAKER_03Um I don't really I think I just researched it one day. My mom just loves plants and she knows a lot about them. So she used to be an FFA advisor and grew mums, so she knew a little bit of background on it, and just through like a research, we kind of just like did it and then it worked. So that's what we've done ever since.
SPEAKER_02How did you decide to start offering more than just mums?
SPEAKER_03I think it was something where I realized that some people just like don't have a green thon and they can't figure it out.
SPEAKER_01And that'd be me.
SPEAKER_03I I just love the design aspect and like being able to like put different things together and make it look cool is something really interesting to me. And so I actually tried spring bedding plants one time. It was an epic fail. My greenhouse blew over the day all my plants came in, and I was like, well, what do I do now? So we were like growing them in our house. It was bad, it was a fail and not good. Um, and then I also tried poinsettas one time, which was kind of also a fail because poinsettas are super sensitive to light and super sensitive to temperature. You have to keep them within a certain range that's very small, heat-wise. And my little greenhouse just couldn't hold the heat and keep that temperature range correct. We also live right off the highway, and so like cars driving by, their lights were actually triggering that sunlight kind of feel for the poinsettas, and so I just didn't grow. Um, and so I just really was struggling with how to offer new things. I wanted to grow, I wanted to try something new. And so the potting services kind of just came along naturally. It was something where it's like I'm already growing the mums, I already have the soil, I can easily grow some grass, and I can probably figure out how to do some accent plants along with it to make it more than just like a mum in a pot. So it kind I did it like one or two for like a few of like close friends, and then I was like, oh, I can make a lot of money off this. So I like started advertising it, and every year I've had more and more and more.
SPEAKER_01Do most of your customers do they pre-buy? I mean, do you have already lined up for this coming fall?
SPEAKER_03So the way I do it is my potting services all have to be pre-ordered. So that comes out about the end of July to early August. And then the end of August to beginning of September area is when I'll pot all of those. So I have a deadline sometime throughout that. Um as far as individual mums, if somebody comes to me and says, like, hey, I need like 10 mums, I'll set those aside for them. Um you can pre-order, but typically my customers just like come on out to our house and buy the mums there.
SPEAKER_01So like Christmas trees, it's like a trip to Morgan's and you get to go out and see your mums and talk. Do they get to come see them before they pick them up? Like it's like a a puppy or something that they're buying?
SPEAKER_03Um, I mean, kind of. They so with like them being on a cement pad, they'll be like, oh, I want that specific yellow one right there that has the perfect amount of blooms. And I'll be like, okay, perfect. Here you go. And I'll pick it up, hand it to them, take it to their car, and they give me their money and off they go. And I'm happy and they're happy.
SPEAKER_01Tara, how are how are you with mums?
SPEAKER_02Uh I would say not so good. Yeah. Um, but I've never purchased from Morgan's mums before. So that could be a game changer for me. I have I have been the victim of times buying mums from the store that uh are at an extreme discount, and it's because they have no buds on them, and I didn't realize that they only bloom once a year. So that meant I've essentially bought mums that will never bloom when that happens. Yeah.
SPEAKER_01So you started your first business at the age of three. You have negotiated with brokers for your mom business, you've clearly opened bank accounts, probably have worked with accountants on taxes and things like that. Is there anything you learned in that experience that most kids don't learn in just the classroom?
SPEAKER_03Yeah. I mean, I was like clicking buttons on a calculator at the age of five, doing math. I mean, me and my brothers, we'd fight over that calculator because we wanted to we wanted to deal with the money. That was like our favorite thing ever. I was like dealing cash here and there everywhere, and I was just thinking that was pretty epic. But also just like the people skills, um, being able to have a conversation with somebody I've never met before is not something that many 10-year-olds are super comfortable with. Um, I was pretty comfortable with it. I'd already ran a business for seven years at that point. Um, but also just like dealing with money, like my parents were always big on like this is your college fund, so you don't get to spend it all right now. We'd maybe get like 20 bucks to like go to Walmart and buy a toy every year, and we'd be like, oh, super picky about what we're picking out because we worked hard for that money and we really like we wanted to make sure that we used that for something that we really wanted. And so being able to save my money, I think, has been something that has been like super beneficial to me. Now I'm what my friends call a penny pincher. Um I don't like to spend my money, um, which maybe that's because my parents didn't let me spend my money. But like every time that money comes out of my bank account now, I'm like, ooh, I worked really hard for that. But I think there's a lot that I learned outside the classroom from being a business owner.
SPEAKER_02Are there any mentors that you would identify? Obviously, it sounds like your mom and your family have been hugely impactful in the various businesses that you have run. Anyone else that you can think of that stands out to you as a mentor?
SPEAKER_03Yeah, Thomas and Rachel Hermanson are the owners at Wildridge Greenhouse. And they have been some of my biggest mentors. Um I still buy like flowers from them in smaller quantities to this day. And I mean, we're technically competitors, but they've always been willing to uh give me words of advice, tell me how to do things, like remind me of things that I maybe forgot. Like they're always just super, super willing to do that. And like going like senior year of high school, I don't she wrote Rachel wrote me countless letters of recommendation for different scholarships and different things like that. And I still use her for some of those things today, and they've just always been so willing to help, even though I'm we're technically competitors, but they just wanted to see me succeed. And I mean, working at the greenhouse for those four years was like one of the best things I ever did. Most high schoolers are like, oh, I have to go work at McDonald's or like some crappy job. They don't actually want to do like the tasseling. But I was like, oh, I get to go with plants today, and they're like, ugh, jealous of you. So that was super fun to get to do that and then to be able to gain their mentorship through that too.
SPEAKER_01In every business, through tough days, things are more difficult than others. Folks, it's human nature that you can get down. How do you reorient yourself to get back into a positive mindset?
SPEAKER_03Yeah. Um, things are hard. Money is hard. It's hard to deal with these things and to balance these things because it comes back to it. And I am just a 20-year-old college girl right here. Like, I don't have it all figured out. But one thing that I always think about is how can you not smile when you're dealing with flowers? Like it's just such a blessing to be able to do that and to be able to do something I love. I just I said it just a little bit ago, but most people don't get to do a job that they love. And to me, my my business is a job, but it's it's also just like a hobby. It's not really something that I dread doing, it's not something that I don't like to do. And like even on the hard days or the days I don't want to do it, I still get to create a product that my customers love and that I really love being around. And that's something super special.
SPEAKER_01Do you talk to your moms?
SPEAKER_03My mom does. She's a good one. What did she say? What did she say? Yeah. Well, when she she used to have this big, we used to have this competition with one of our neighbors to see who could grow a bigger pumpkin. And so we always joked that the reason that our pumpkin was bigger was because she talked to it. Um, I think she still talks to my moms. I don't know. That's the verdict's still out on that. But I typically don't talk to my moms. I will listen to like music and maybe I'll sing along every once in a while, but I don't like Kayla buddy, grow today. You don't name them. No, I don't name them. That'd be a lot of names.
SPEAKER_01Uh if they if moms could talk, what do you think they would say?
SPEAKER_03So I gave my moms a fertilizer um every single day. Um, I think that they would be like, um this summer I actually like forgot to adjust. You're supposed to adjust the level of fertilizer throughout the time. I suppose to like average out their growingness and like when they're little, they don't eat as much, and they're bigger, they need more. I kind of just set it out of range and forgot about it this last summer, and my mom's grew huge. And I think it's because I fertilized them a little too much, but I think that they enjoyed that. So I think they would have told me, like, hey, yeah, keep feeding me. So yeah.
SPEAKER_01If uh Morgan's moms and more had a slogan, what would it be?
SPEAKER_03Um, growing beautiful blooms for beautiful front porches.
SPEAKER_01Oh, I like that. It's very nice.
SPEAKER_02Mark, I thought of some fun, like quickfire ones. Fire away. You ready? Yeah. Okay. Some of these might be more fun than others. Okay. So quickfire, greenhouse or classroom. Greenhouse. Early morning or late nights. Middle of the afternoon. How about uh perfection or experimentation?
SPEAKER_03Oh, I'm a big perfectionist, so probably that.
SPEAKER_02Grow it yourself or outsource.
SPEAKER_03I would say grow it yourself, but I I do technically outsource, so I don't know which one that really falls into.
SPEAKER_02How about single big order or lots of small orders?
SPEAKER_03I'm a people person, so probably lots of small orders. That's what I got for our quick fires.
SPEAKER_01What's the uh most unusual customer request you've ever had?
SPEAKER_03This last fall I had a person come to me and they're like, I want a mum, but I don't want the green stuff, and I don't want these colors, this one specific color of bloom. And I was like, the green stuff? Like, what are you talking about? Like, you know, that was like green little things on the stems. And I was like, the leaves? Like you don't want the leaves? And so it turns out he didn't mean he didn't want the leaves. He wanted like a plant that was like so covered in blooms that's all you saw was the blooms. Because he wasn't used to like buying a product from a small business that like really like I think one of my biggest things I brought on is the quality of my plants is something way better than what you're gonna get from Walmart or like Earl May or some big box store. Like, I touch each and every one of these plants with my own hands, like it's gonna be a nice quality plant. And I don't think he was used to that, and so I think he's used to like going to Walmart and getting a plant with like a few blooms and not like a lot of blooms. So I think that's what I think that's what he was meaning by I don't want the green stuff, but that was definitely an odd request.
SPEAKER_01So do do you have the ability to adjust the fertilizer to encourage flower or bloom production?
SPEAKER_03Yeah, so um they're very nitrogen need needy, and so depending on the levels of nitrogen, if you bump the nitrogen up, it'll um help push the bloom time back because they'll be in the feeding stage. If you lower the nitrogen, it'll trigger blooming.
SPEAKER_01Interesting. Those are things that you know you've learned, right?
SPEAKER_03Yeah, it's it's crazy the things you can learn. There's I'm still learning to this day all these different things about moms, different varieties, even like the different colors have different needs. Um, it's just really crazy.
SPEAKER_01You said that the your favorite variety is Ghostbuster. Yes. Is there another one? Is there something on the horizon that's gonna be the next Ghostbuster for you?
SPEAKER_03I just love a purple mum, so maybe like the purple patty. It's a pretty good one. They're just like traditional purple.
SPEAKER_02I've seen a very, very dark purple mum before. What is that variety?
SPEAKER_03Ooh, I don't know. I don't I I could look through that book for hours. There's like 70 shades of red, and you just get really overwhelmed. So I'll just like pick a few and stick to what I know.
SPEAKER_01That's like the book from the broker, the chorder.
SPEAKER_03Yep.
SPEAKER_01So if folks want to find out more about Morgan's Mums and More, or perhaps even order some moms, where should they go?
SPEAKER_03Yeah, you can go to Morgan's Mums and More on Facebook and Instagram.
SPEAKER_01And what happens if this podcast just blows up all your orders and you don't have any left?
SPEAKER_03Well, then that's good for me, I guess, because I'll have a lot of money and no plants left.
SPEAKER_01So, Morgan, something we ask all of our guests, and you get just one word. What is the one word that to you best describes this place in which you were born and raised, where you attended Aurora High School, were active in FFA, played sports, now attend the University of Nebraska, part of the Ingler program, started your first business at the age of three, and operate Morgan's Mums and More. What's your one word from Nebraska?
SPEAKER_03My one word would be rooted. Um, I think it's Nebraska's rooted in tradition. It kind of is a play on my mom's too. We have a lot of roots in our moms, and that's pretty good. Um, but just rooted in the tradition and rooted in the history of Nebraska. I think there's a lot of generational history that goes back in this state, and that's why it's so good, is because we've all been here for so long. I don't know very many people that migrated to Nebraska just because they thought it'd be a cool place to live. But once you're here, it's hard to leave.
SPEAKER_01It's awesome. Thanks for coming on.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, thanks for having me.
SPEAKER_01If you enjoyed this episode, consider subscribing on Apple, Spotify, or whatever your favorite podcast app is. Be certain to share it with someone who might find it of interest. And please keep on listening as we release additional episodes on Nebraska, its great communities, Nebraska's number one industry agriculture, and the people who make it happen.
SPEAKER_00Thanks. This has been Nighty Three, the podcast, sponsored by Nebraska's law firm, Rumboldt Ludke.
