The Jet Fresh Guys: How Their Business Took Flight, Building Great Work Culture, & Creating Loyal Employees

Episode 139: In this episode, we sat down with The Jet Fresh guys, Mike, Fern, & Ryan. These guys know a thing or two about how to have fun and work hard at the same time, and they're making some waves in the floral industry right now for the right reasons.

Get a glimpse into their origin story, how their incredible work culture and business took flight, and how to foster a team that is hungry to learn and grow.

Check out their podcast and business below:
2 Fat Guys Talking Flowers Podcast
Follow Jet Fresh on Instagram
JetFreshFlowers.com

Sponsored by Flower Clique

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

Transcript

SPEAKER_04 0:04

There is a lot of legacies, and there's a lot of people that, you know, they want to keep their kids in the family business, or maybe they're coming back to it. How important is it for them to really know, you know, you you've got to start them kind of at the bottom.

SPEAKER_05 0:22

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

SPEAKER_07 0:26

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

SPEAKER_06 0:37

Hey Lori, how are you doing today?

SPEAKER_08 0:40

I'm fabulous. How are you, Vonda?

SPEAKER_06 0:42

I'm great. We have a room full of people today. I'm so excited.

SPEAKER_08 0:45

We do. We do. We have lots of little friends here today, besides Ellie. Ellie, thanks for hanging in here with us.

SPEAKER_06 0:53

Well, it's just great to be here. And I am like super jealous because you met these wonderful people when you were at Next Gen at Society of American Florists in Miami.

SPEAKER_08 1:03

Yes, we did. And we had so much fun. It was it was an immediate, I don't want to sound weird, but it was like an immediate attraction in a good non-weird way. Like there were their their energy and humor. I was like, ooh, these might be my people. Totally. It was really fun.

SPEAKER_04 1:22

It was really so we want to officially introduce uh the team at JetFresh. We've got Mike Black, who is the founder and president. We've got Fern Ortega, the GM and sales captain, and we also have Ryan Black, who is the marketing and media director. So we'll just go around the room quickly, have you guys uh introduce yourselves so we can put some voices to the names. Mike?

SPEAKER_03 1:49

Hi there, my name is Mike from Jeff First Flowers, and I'm glad to be here with you guys. Thanks for having us.

SPEAKER_08 1:55

Thanks for coming.

SPEAKER_00 1:57

Hey guys, I'm the Fern, GM at uh JeffFresh Flowers. It's a pleasure to be here.

SPEAKER_01 2:03

And it's Ryan, I'm the marketing director, Jeff Fresh Flowers. Thanks for having us.

SPEAKER_04 2:08

So, like Vonda said, we met you guys for the first time at Nextgen Live in Miami. And um, you guys have such an interesting story, interesting company. You guys are doing some big things. But for somebody listening who knows nothing about JetFresh, tell us what you guys are all about.

SPEAKER_00 2:28

Well, Jeff Fresh, I mean, we're a crazy group of individuals. Um, you know, if you ask Mike, uh Mike calls us the land of the midfits. I like to say we're all the pieces, but you put us together, we make Voltron. We got uh all the way from the top, you know, we got a hard-working crew. Mike, Casey, Dan, Berman, myself, our management team. Um, but it's not just that, it's everybody, man. We got an amazing crew of people who love flowers and are all about service.

SPEAKER_01 3:02

I guess you have to we're wholesaler importer distributors and growers. Oh, yeah, we sell flowers, yeah. We're based in Miami, and we have an office and a farm in Ke in uh Ecuador as well.

SPEAKER_06 3:12

Amazing. I was listening to your podcast.

SPEAKER_01 3:15

Are you a fan? Did you like it? Or are we too was it too long? I know we're long episodes, so it's a long episode.

SPEAKER_06 3:21

I was listening to the one about the five brothers, and I think that was just fascinating. And I could just tell that Mike, you taught these boys how to work, you know, and you had a couple who were like, I'm not sure I want to work that hard, and they like went into something else, which what I really respected is that they said, But I learned this when I was growing up, and I'm bringing it into my next career.

SPEAKER_01 3:44

So we gotta we gotta redo that episode and then have them all have a little have a few drinks first, because I think everybody was really nervous. I was the like we had that f conversation for the first time in that room, like we never really got into it like that as a as a group like that.

SPEAKER_00 4:00

So Mike was quiet for like the first 45 minutes. I've and he's never quiet. I mean, it was it was he was in awe.

SPEAKER_04 4:07

Kind of sounded concerned for I was, I was, you know.

SPEAKER_00 4:10

It's uh we were all nervous, yeah. It's a tough conversation to hear, and you know, uh yeah, some of his kids chose to do a different career path. So, you know, that's those are hard things to hear. And I even think those are hard conversations. How do you look at this man who's a great leader, a great mentor, great father, and tell him, hey man, I don't want to do what you what you took your passion in your life and took time training me. You know, that's a hard that's a hard thing to say.

SPEAKER_06 4:36

So right, right. I don't think I'd redo it. I think it was raw, and I think that's what No, I agree.

SPEAKER_01 4:42

I I I agree with that. I just want that I wanted them to dig a little deeper, you know. I wanted to get some of the better stories out of my brothers, but I get I agree. It was a great episode.

SPEAKER_04 4:50

Your podcast is called What? Tell everybody.

SPEAKER_01 4:53

Two fat guys talking flowers. Uh it was named that after these two gentlemen here. Uh they they they can't they came up with the name themselves, so it's not me calling them fat. They picked the name out.

SPEAKER_00 5:05

We're honest and raw people. We're two fat guys, and we talk flowers, you know? Give you the good, the bad, the ugly. Apparently, that was too long of a of a title from Ryan.

SPEAKER_08 5:15

I just wanted to go back to Mike when you guys were talking about your family, and um you created JetFresh. Like, are you the person that started it, or was your father? Tell tell me a little, I just kind of want to know how the whole thing originated.

SPEAKER_03 5:32

Uh well, I I worked for my family. Started when I was uh young kid in summertime, and then as soon as I could, I kind of worked full-time. Probably 16 or 17 years old. I was working full-time in the wholesale flower market in New York City. My family had a wholesale house there. Um was my grandfather, my father, my uncle. And um I started just like my son started, you know. And uh that's where it all started. And uh fast forward a long period of time, I went into another business, and that business failed. And uh I moved to Miami for work, and um I worked for a company there for nine years. That didn't work out well for me, and um I had uh many opportunities. Lots of people were interviewing me and uh giving me uh chances to work for them. And um but uh I wound up uh getting an opportunity from uh the Dushawn brothers who uh were at that time running uh J Flower Service, which is uh part of Armelini. Wow uh and uh they encouraged me to do it myself and to start my own company, and uh um I said no, I'm not gonna not gonna ever do my own company again because it kind of sucks to roll your own company. It's really nice when you get when you get your paycheck every Friday and you go home. That was pretty nice, but um uh it just worked out and um I started it just buying a few boxes from people I knew in Miami and selling a few boxes to people I knew in other places. And um one by one built from there and worked really hard and uh I had I had an amazing amount of support from every direction. Um this industry is they either love you or they hate you, you know, and there's really no middle ground. It's and and and the more you compete, the more they kind of hate you. And it's uh not what happened to me. It's uh I got a just a tremendous amount of support from everywhere, from everywhere, and and and people just wanted to help me. And I say this story from time to time if you can imagine yourself standing in the middle of an arena and everyone cheering for you, and everyone, you know, supporting you. That's kind of like how it felt for me, and um that just set me off. That just set me like on fire. I'm gonna do this, and I was just gonna I was on fire, and being that I worked for another company in Miami for like uh for a long period of time, I got to interact with many other Miami companies, and I got to see what their shortfalls were and uh what in my opinion they were missing, and in most cases it was they were missing service and they were missing the connection between a flower buyer and a flower seller, and I had the upper hand because I have been a wholesaler, I have been a bouquet maker, I have been all these things in my past, and I could relate, I felt like at that time I could relate to these buyers better than anyone else in town because they didn't have a similar experience. So I can I can re I was able to relate with the customers, and you know, it came a time where I just couldn't buy, sell, do the invoices, I couldn't do it all myself. So little by little uh we have more and more misfits arrive at the door. I just refuse to be a corporate structure, I refuse to um do anything less than a hard day's work for a good day's pay. And um that's how I've treated every every one of my employees ever since. And yeah, in sales is is no different than the guys who work in the warehouse. Everyone's treated pretty much the same. Um and we've been able to been able to bring what we do here in in Miami, we've been able to bring it to Ecuador, to our business in Ecuador. And um it's just been incredible for me, and I I I've been highly motivated for almost 15 years now. I've been highly motivated. I've been doing this almost 45 years, and I ain't hardly ready to hang it up yet, you know. I just I can't wait to see what we do next, and I can't wait to see how my guys grow. Not just my family, not just my sons, but the whole team. The whole team. And um I I've been very fortunate. I've been very fortunate to not only have the support from suppliers and vendors and growers and warehouse people and even guys who rent trucks. I mean just it's been really it's been great. And then having my family come on board to help me is just makes it all the better. And um I've never been more proud of so many people at one time, and I've never ran a business like this before. I've never had so many employees before, I've never had the situation that we have right now, and I just you know, just we just had too much fun.

SPEAKER_06 11:38

One thing that really sticks out in my mind is that when Ellie and Lori came back, they could not stop talking about the culture of your business. They couldn't stop talking, they were so excited. They said everybody should find that. Explain that a little bit to me.

SPEAKER_04 11:55

Yeah, but before you get into that, um, the words that come to my mind, and you guys can obviously prove me wrong or if there's other words, but uh immediately Lori and I thought of you guys are fun, you're hardworking, and you're loyal. And so for somebody who didn't get to meet you in person, you know, what is that culture like in in your business? And just give us a little insight into that because you guys have so many fun stories. Uh we could be here for hours, but give us a little bit.

SPEAKER_00 12:25

It really it really starts at the top. It starts with Mike. Mike is an extremely hard-working individual. He's workaholic. Yeah, he's a workaholic, and that's it's not a bad thing.

SPEAKER_01 12:36

He's been it his whole life. We were all trained and brought up that way. Like we're all kind of in some way workaholics throughout the family. So nope, no sweat to him. I feel like in this industry, to be successful, you almost you have to be.

SPEAKER_00 12:49

Hard work beats talent, hard work is gonna beat pricing, you know, hard work is where it's at. So it starts at the top. So, you know, it's a it's a struggle to beat Mike here in the office before he gets in. It's a struggle to beat him out of the office every day. You know, he's always working hard and late. He really puts his on, he's taught us all. You know, if we work hard, we will be successful. And he showed it to us time and time again. He's extremely loyal to his people, his people are loyal to him. Um, he takes care of everybody here, everyone. You know, we're a family company, we're treated like family, you know. We we're not corporate, there's no mold that you have to come and fit our mold. If not, you're not gonna you don't work out in a company. You come and be yourself.

SPEAKER_03 13:35

Most companies are run by somebody who has like a master's degree or an MBA or you didn't know all about flow charts and spreadsheets and debt charts and organizational charts and all this hoopla that doesn't apply to the flower business. I just never believed, and I did have an opportunity to work for a very big company who was in the flower business for a short amount of time, and those numbers are enough to demotivate everyone. Those numbers are are are are so unrealistic, and the pressure is so hard. So I from the very beginning believe that you're not gonna get a great team of motivated people if you only run your business by the numbers. We're in a perishable business, we have weather conditions, we have all kinds of things that happen every day that numbers have nothing to do with, and nobody can control it. So we overbuy, we buy too little, those are just mistakes. If we don't make our number, yeah, maybe we're motive, we're demotivated and we talk about it and we want to do better next month. But I really feel that taking that away, that pressure of making your numbers, or else you're in trouble, you're fired, or you know, I'll change you, I'll bring in the next round of people if you don't get to the goal or the number or whatever the the big boss says you have it do. I really believe that that's what keeps people motivated. We don't have no dummies working in our company, they see the numbers, right? They see the dumps, they see the successful stuff. Everyone sees it. So celebrate, and you know, if someone does something and gets to a goal or something, right?

unknown 15:37

Right.

SPEAKER_08 15:37

That's we have a party. Speaking of parties, we have one of you, uh Ryan, I think you were telling me, or you were talking in you were on the panel for young how to lead as a young person. Um, and you guys, part of your onboarding it process is you actually gift the employees a nerf gun, right?

SPEAKER_01 15:59

That's something we started doing recently because if you're in the office, you're gonna need it because it's you gotta protect yourself. Yeah, you don't everybody everybody else has one, so at a certain point it became a necessity. So yeah, that's like uh it's like almost like they're like you've become like into the you're into the tribe now. You're you've been accepted as one of us. You yeah.

SPEAKER_00 16:18

It's like when Andy writes his name on the bottom of the toy. That's it. Your family.

SPEAKER_08 16:23

I'm toy story, yeah. So tell us a little bit about how you utilize the Nerf guns. So like set the stage.

SPEAKER_01 16:30

So when Fern, when the salesperson isn't isn't done selling enough, Fern's. No, I'm just kidding. Uh no, it's really honestly, it started as just like stress relief. Uh it's just fun in the office. Um, honestly, I think the person who enjoys it the most are like the accounting girls and the uh the CJ is the director of first impressions who's who works up in the front desk. Uh she she loves it. She's out here shooting her dad most of the day just because she can see his desk from where she sits.

SPEAKER_06 16:58

So there's but something about music in the nerf guns or something.

SPEAKER_01 17:02

There's always music playing.

SPEAKER_06 17:03

No, the purge.

SPEAKER_01 17:05

Oh, the okay, so now it's okay. So recently we've always had Nerf guns, but recently uh one of us bought like a newer version of them, and it's like really an intense. It was right. Okay, I bought the gun. So it was an intense, it was a like a high-end one, like a battery-powered shot, like a crazy amount of guns. It's too dangerous, is the point. So everybody ended up buying it as soon as they saw it. So at the next day, everybody in the office has one, but it's intense and it's too dangerous, and people are gonna lose an eyeball if we don't give some kind of warning sound. So they play the purge sound effect, that crazy, that intense horn sound. And uh that's your warning sign to put on your goggles and like get your get your get get your gun ready.

SPEAKER_00 17:46

Ryan now has like full body armor almost to protect himself. He's cheating. Just saying.

SPEAKER_01 17:53

Our office, our office is filled with just like random things from past trade shows or past videos and things like that. So there just happen to be like uh an astronaut helmet. So I I use that, and that thing, that's perfect protector. You know, you could get all 360s out of your head, it's guarded.

SPEAKER_03 18:10

That's hilarious. So there they at the end of a battle, there could be thousand nerf balls all over the office that have to be picked up. And Fern orders something from Amazon now that's well, okay.

SPEAKER_00 18:25

So, like Ryan mentioned the accounting girl. So you have uh Cindy and Amy, they're like the perfect team, you know. Uh Amy is like a sniper with this Nerf gun. She doesn't talk all day, she's silent, she comes in and she really works hard, and you don't even know she's there sometimes. She's just working, working, working. And then, but you you bring out a nerf gun and she's an assassin, like literal assassin. Like she hits you, she'll hit you in the eye. She's gonna get you in the eye. You better wear your goggles around her. So, and then Cindy, Cindy can pick up these little balls faster than a toddler after a sugar rush. She's she's fast. So their their trick was they would get all the ammo and no one would have any more balls, and then you know, they would have all the ammo and they turn around and reshoot everybody. So I I so I found on Amazon an acorn picker-upper, and it's like a wired roll that is kind of like the shape of a football, and then you pass it on the ground like a vacuum, and it just all the little balls go in through the wires, and they pick it all up. So I'm like, aha.

SPEAKER_01 19:35

Nerf balls are traded like cigarettes here.

SPEAKER_08 19:38

If we weren't virtual, I would totally do that in a heartbeat. In a heartbeat, it would be so much fun. Um, all right, I want to go back because I wrote down a lot of things here, words that came to my mind as you were talking, Mike. And one thing, again, about the culture of your uh jet fresh business. My question is, and I don't know if it's who which one of you, I would love to know what you look for when you are hiring someone because of everything you've said up until now, it it's not like an accountant. Like, are they great at numbers or are they you know what what is it that makes you go, this is our guy, or this is our girl.

SPEAKER_03 20:29

I look for talent. I look for talent, undiscovered talent, or or or raw talent, or or moldable talent, or or I look for somebody who in, for example, in sales, if you're able to sell me, I think you're pretty good. So, or if I hear you have a really good gift of gab, but you failed at another company for whatever reason, I really just feel like I can I just have these feelings. I've been right like probably eight out or nine out of ten times. You know, I've made some mistakes um hiring the wrong people, but uh for the most part we've been really solid with the hiring. But I think one of the most important things is to hire people that are laid back. I like to hire potheads.

unknown 21:14

I'll tell you that.

SPEAKER_00 21:16

Yeah, I knew he was gonna say that. I wasn't sure he was gonna say the micro on ours.

SPEAKER_03 21:22

Yeah, that's funny. I do, I do, I do.

SPEAKER_08 21:25

Why do you like to hire potheads?

SPEAKER_01 21:27

There's there's types of potheads. You can't just say flat out all potheads, there's the working ones, right?

SPEAKER_03 21:33

Right. Right. Functional potheads that are uh uh uh creative people um that have um they just have a mellow mellow tone to them, and um they they I mean let's face it, they get they have more fun. They have more fun and and and and and I think your customer you know other Up until recent years, you used to be on the phone with your customer all the time. You know, now you know it's Skype and it's emails and this and that. But the old days of the phone is like it's not as strong. But when it was, I mean being a good communicator, being a friendly person, being somebody who can lay back and talk to you like you know, you truly are flower friends, you know. And this is a relationship-based business, and it's important to be able to be able to talk to a buyer when you're selling, so they can uh so they can be comfortable and trust you and relate to you. So yeah, I like I like different, I like I like to hire people that just have something.

SPEAKER_01 22:47

Also, I think honesty and trustworthy is a big deal for them as far as hiring goes.

SPEAKER_03 22:52

Personality, punctuality, uh our ads. What do our ads used to say, Ryan?

SPEAKER_01 22:59

Now those ads nowadays are counterproductive, but when we used to post uh for salespeople ads, we would put like we're we're not looking for people that are clock watchers or lazy. We would like put this on the ad. Nowadays it's like a recipe of what not to put out when you're when you're trying to hire people, but I mean we were looking for diamonds in the rough, you know. I mean, we're we were a small team just adding one or two more pieces to the puzzle.

SPEAKER_03 23:24

We don't have we don't have fancy rat.

SPEAKER_01 23:27

That was all on the ad.

SPEAKER_03 23:28

We we were giving them those and they'll show it up after that.

SPEAKER_00 23:32

But Mike, Mike has an eye, guys. Mike has an eye, and and he he can spot talent out in an arena. You put them in an arena, people, and he'll he'll pick the diamonds, he'll pick them up.

SPEAKER_06 23:43

Well, one of the big takeaways I had from your podcast was when you said, I'm not sure if it was Fern or if it was you, Mike, that said respect is earned, not given. And that's what you're doing from the very bottom up when all those people are coming. You're respecting them, they're respecting you, and that's where they can continue to work and to grow with the company, which I think is gained.

SPEAKER_04 24:07

So building off of that with respect is earned, not given, was in relation to having your sons work for you, Mike, and you know, making sure they are putting in the hard work and not just getting given titles within our industry. I think there is a lot of legacies, and there's a lot of people that you know they want to keep their kids in the family business or maybe they're coming back to it. How important is it for them to really know, you know, you you've got to start them kind of at the bottom? You can't just bring in a guy and and have him be at the top. Um, can you share a little bit how important that is for a business's culture and success?

SPEAKER_03 24:46

Uh yeah. Um, when I worked for my family, uh at that time the flower market was unionized. So uh being the boss's son working with union guys, union guys, uh it was extra difficult because their jobs were secured. Their jobs were secured. So like in Florida, like right now, like if I if I have a valid reason, I could just you know say, hey, you know, we gotta go. And at that time, like that really wasn't possible. Someone had to be really done something bad and have it documented multiple times and go to arbitration and all this stuff because it was a union shop, and um it made it extra hard for me to uh be respected as the boss's son. So I had to outwork everyone, and I had to uh uh earn my spot. I had to earn my spot, and uh, you know, over time, and it took a long time, it took years, not days, weeks, months. It took me years to earn respect of the people that were there for many years before I got there. So I mean there wasn't a lot of employees. I think maybe my dad had maybe 20 employees, 25, I don't know. It wasn't that many people. But when you're working for a company, uh when you when you when your dad owns a company that that has union employees, um they don't have to be afraid to tell the boss's son to go screw, you know. They don't have to, they're not gonna have any, there's nothing's gonna happen to them. There's nothing that can happen to them. So for me, it was extra hard. Um, and I'm not sorry about that because um I learned a lot only by trying to earn my respect on people. And that was whether I was loading trucks or I was driving trucks or I was unloading, whatever I was doing, I tried to do it not only not not to make them look bad, I just tried to do it with them as a team and and to let them know that I was ready to jump on whatever. In fact, I was the guy who would volunteer to jump in the garbage can every day to push it down so we had more room to do more stuff. You know, I was the chubby boss's son, so that was you know, where's Mike? So I would jump in the garbage dumpster to to get the garbage down so we could put some more garbage in because the garbage man wasn't coming to the next day. So that was my job for a long time. So and I think those things are like, you know, that's I I just believe that, you know, when you're the boss's son or daughter, and and the boss's uh uh uh employees uh kind of resent you when you walk in. You know, I mean I don't I won't say everyone and everywhere, but I think a lot of people like here comes a new boss, you know. Here's some here's some college kid who just you know they don't know anything what's going on here, but they're gonna try to pretend like they're the bosses, yeah, don't her daughter, and they're gonna boss me around. People don't like that shit. You know, I don't you know, I just I just people don't like it. So I I I just feel like it's the best way. It's just the best way.

SPEAKER_00 28:34

It's the right way. When somebody just comes in and they're now your boss, and you have to listen to this person, and maybe they were in the industry, the most likely they weren't in the industry. They don't understand flowers, they don't understand the ups and downs and the work that it takes, you know. So it's hard to respect the person that is just put in. That person is your boss. Mike has raised his kids to be leaders, and he's taken people like me, Dan Berman, and he's made us leaders, he's taught us how to lead and not be bosses, and and that's a big part of our company culture.

SPEAKER_08 29:12

Fern, as I wrote down, I was right, one of my words was he's a leader. I wrote it down during this whole thing, and there's a couple of things Bonda and I've talked about this a lot on our podcast, and it always stays right in the forefront of my mind. Um, the to me, two biggest things about leaders, one is as someone told us, the way to find out if you're a leader is to look behind you following and see who's following, right? It's very easy. If no one's following, you're not leading. But clearly, Mike, everyone is watching you because you're modeling for them. The other thing that stands out to me about being a leader, a leader's job is to grow your people, and you do that. Like you are a textbook leader, and you know, I don't know, were you born that way? Did you take a bunch of classes? I don't know, right? But it's amazing how you to me, how you run your business. You you trust your gut and you lead with humility, and that's you don't see a lot of that.

SPEAKER_03 30:25

I don't think it's possible for a company that already exists, that's already running the business, however they ran it for however much long they've been in business, to just like change the channel, like television, and I'm gonna change how my culture and my company is. I think it needs to really be done the right way from the beginning. Yeah. And if someone wants to change and wants to be less corporate and wants to whatever, I think they gotta do it in subtle increments. I don't think you should just suddenly just change the channel because you don't like the show. Right. You know, I think that I think it needs to be pasted out. And we have you won't believe it. We have more than a hundred employees in Ecuador, and it's and and the leader is Juanita Coloma, and you know, she is she is she's the same. You know, she's the same. She's she's leading that that team down there um the same way. Like we wanna we want to promote from within, we want to encourage people to grow, we wanna all these things. And in Ecuador, you know, it was harder to establish that culture because it was so weird for them to understand it. Yeah, you know, it's uh in Ecuador there it's the haves and the have nots, kind of. So it's kind of it's hard to it's hard to swallow that people are actually here to support you and not just here to exploit you, you know. Yeah, it's it's been a hard, long time. And we're still not completely done, but she has done a tremendous tremendous job trying to take what we do in Miami and bring it there. She has. It's been it's been really cool.

SPEAKER_08 32:08

Yeah. So if there were two things you wanted people who are listening right now to walk away and say, okay, oh, Jet Fresh, yeah, I've heard of them. They are A and B. This can go to any of you. What would you want them to know about your company? A florist. Okay, your your audience, I'm pretending, is a florist. Well, I'm not pretending that is our audience here. So what would be two takeaways from this entire podcast that you'd want them to know about JetFresh?

SPEAKER_00 32:41

Want to answer, Mike?

SPEAKER_03 32:42

Well, I mean, from my company's perspective, uh talking to a florist or or you know or a wholesale florist, um, we know that you have one of the most stressful and one of the most uh time commitment kind of company where uh you can't take vacations, you can't take holidays, you can't there's there's so much that ties you down when you're in the flower business. Um the only message that I can say is like we know what you're dealing with, and we're the same as you, and and and we can we can relate to you, we can relate to you, and and and we all know, and we've said this before, you girls have heard it. Oh, you're in the flower business, it must be so amazing, it must smell so fun! Oh, it must smell so nice all day, and you know, you must be it must be such an easy, wonderful way to make a living. Right. Wow, let me tell you, I will tell you, pre-COVID, pre-COVID, I know so many, so many people in our industry were struggling. Struggling, not only financially, but you know, uh uh thinking twice about what we're gonna do with our careers, you know, COVID, COVID in this crazy, sick, twisted way, saved a lot of people and changed a lot of people's minds about our industry and actually refueled us. It refueled so many of people that I know. It's you know, I I know people that went from oh, I'm gonna maybe I'm gonna sell my shop or oh, I'm gonna maybe I'm gonna sell my business. Yeah, I wonder if I can open another one or a whole I know you know it has really sparked our industry, and most people that lost a lot of money made it back. And you know, now we gotta be smart and they gotta play that right going forward and not take anything from granted. And and and and so our message is you know, we're just like you, and uh um if you want to know anything about Jeffresh, you know, it's that would be the message that we're just like you, we're a family business, and we're not all about the bottom line, we're not all about all that, you know. We're just we just wanna want to continue to grow just like everyone else, and uh do it with honesty and integrity and loyalty and all the important things that we have. I know that sounds really fortune cookie kind of stuff, but it's kind of it's kind of like how I see it. If you ask me as far.

SPEAKER_04 35:50

Fern, did you have anything to add there?

SPEAKER_00 35:52

You know, the the only thing I would add is that, man, we are about the hustle. We are the home of non-stop service. Um, we got a cast of characters that you know are here to help you, and we're not here to harm you, we're here to guide you and consult you and and help you get the you know the best flowers at the best possible price for the market. And you know, if you put your trust in us, um, you know, we're we're gonna come on top every time.

SPEAKER_01 36:22

Yeah, we we play hard, but we work hard.

SPEAKER_08 36:25

All right. I ask a question at the end of every podcast. I don't know if you've listened to ours.

SPEAKER_01 36:31

Yes. Do you want a short answer or do you want a like a long answer?

SPEAKER_08 36:35

I want I know we're running out of time. Follow your heart, Ryan. You follow your heart.

SPEAKER_01 36:40

A short answer is the one she's saying.

unknown 36:42

All right.

SPEAKER_08 36:42

No, no, no, no, no, no. This is great. So follow your heart. So, Fern, I'm gonna start with you. What is inspiring you right now?

SPEAKER_00 36:54

All right, so the youth. We are we are blessed at JeffRush to have a ton of youth, and I'm in a position where I'm able to share my knowledge, share my experiences, and help these people, these young people in our company grow and learn and build. And that is my inspiration to share. I had an amazing selection of mentors as I came through the industry. Um, Oscar Fernandez, Raul Moreiro, um, Jeffrey Steiner, Barry Gottlieb, you know, and Michael Black, you know, who Mike Mike is, you know, one of the greatest teachers, mentors, father figures out there. I mean, he has taken us under his wing, and man, all the knowledge I share, I can't wait to help my team grow and do better and and build them up. You know, I tell everybody if you want to take my position, fantastic. I'll help you get there, and that'll free me up to do something better and bigger for the company.

SPEAKER_08 37:53

So good. So, so good. Love it. Uh, Ryan, what about you?

SPEAKER_01 37:58

Mine's mine's not not as good. Um uh well, recently I've been I've been really um I'm always doing everything on the marketing side, so creatively. I'm always doing creative projects and things like that. Um inspired recently. Uh I've been learning about all this new crazy AI stuff and all the stuff in with how it can do designs and making me having to search for stock images is like gonna be going away in the future and like things like that, and like seeing how that could play and how that's gonna tie into everyday work for a marketer and things like that and a designer. Um, I've been really inspired just digging into learning more about that and stuff around that that whole space.

SPEAKER_08 38:36

Very cool. That's you need to meet with Ellie, and you guys need to I I could see her eyes light up when you said that. Like, oh, tell me.

SPEAKER_01 38:45

It's crazy. Some of the stuff nowadays, what they're coming up with is wild.

SPEAKER_08 38:49

Very cool. So all right, Mike. What's inspiring you right now for Lake? Oh boy, oh boy, oh okay, okay.

SPEAKER_01 38:56

I hope it's the listeners. He's got he's gotten up and walked away.

SPEAKER_08 39:04

Oh, it's brought back some roses.

SPEAKER_02 39:09

What are they called? But most people in the United States never saw it before. It's called Miss Piggy. Miss Piggy, I could smell them.

SPEAKER_03 39:17

Yes, you can smell them too. Right? This this kind of the breeder told us, the breeder told us it was a very difficult rose in Ecuador. It doesn't really work. And the breeder told us that there was no Budwood available, and there everyone was almost telling us, give up, it's not gonna happen, you're not gonna get it, and whatever, whatever. And Juanita and Carlos David and our engineer at the farm, we got our hands on some Budwood and we built our own plants, and we're almost to the point where in about six months we're gonna have these in production. Not a huge amount, but we're gonna have Miss Piggy. We'll be one of the first in Ecuador to have it. That shit inspires me.

SPEAKER_08 40:02

Beautiful. Wow, that's that is amazing because 11-year-old Lori's entire bedroom was Miss Piggy, even my sheets. So I'm very excited for this.

SPEAKER_01 40:17

That's fantastic.

SPEAKER_04 40:19

So, where can people find you?

SPEAKER_01 40:21

At Jeff Fresh Flowers on all the major social media channels. And uh, you can look up two fat guys talking flowers on all podcast channels and JeffFreshflowers.com for everything else you need.

SPEAKER_06 40:33

Well, we thank you guys for joining us today, and we look forward to this airing so everybody can hear a little bit more about JetFresh.

SPEAKER_01 40:40

Thank you very much, guys. It was a pleasure to be on, guys. Really appreciate it.

SPEAKER_07 40:45

Thank you so much for listening to our podcast. We hope you enjoyed spending time with us because we enjoy spending time with you. 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_05 41:06

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