Journey of a Floral Professional: Interview with Brent Leech AIFD, CFD

Episode 195: In this inspiring episode, we sit down with Brent Leech, a highly accomplished floral designer, educator, and AIFD representative on the National Board. Brent takes us through his incredible journey from a small town in Illinois to the bustling Arizona Flower Market in Phoenix, where an average of 200 floral deliveries a day is the norm.

Brent shares insights on navigating the DIY floral market and you won't want to miss Brent's insightful "5-Minute Message," where he shares a nugget of wisdom that every aspiring or seasoned floral designer should hear. With his passion for flowers, creativity, and dedication to his lifelong work, Brent's story is sure to inspire and spark your own floral design journey.

Note: AIFD stands for the American Institute of Floral Designers, and CFD refers to Certified Floral Designer.

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

Transcript

SPEAKER_02 0:03

And there's nothing better than when you can take a student who has never touched a flower or never had any experience at all and you watch them get it.

SPEAKER_00 0:17

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

SPEAKER_01 0:23

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

SPEAKER_00 0:33

Welcome back to you too, Vonda. You brought a friend. I did. I brought a good friend of mine, Brent Leach, a member of the American Institute of Floral Designers, and a longtime friend.

SPEAKER_02 0:47

Yes.

SPEAKER_01 0:48

Good morning, Brent.

SPEAKER_02 0:49

Good morning. How are you ladies doing today?

SPEAKER_01 0:52

We are doing well. Thanks for coming.

SPEAKER_00 0:55

Lori was asking me where we met the first time. And I said, you know what? I have a story, but I want to see what if Brent remembers.

SPEAKER_02 1:06

Ooh, gosh. You know, I I'm old, Bonnie. Come on.

SPEAKER_00 1:13

Did I meet you first or your sister Melody?

SPEAKER_02 1:18

I think my sister, because I think I physically met you either at your shop in Dixon because Melody told me about you. Or I know we did an AID function in Wisconsin. I remember seeing you there. We were setting up displays or something there. And I remember working with you or seeing you there. But I think Melody told me about you, and I had to go down and see who this Vonda person was.

SPEAKER_00 1:44

That's what I was thinking. That when we owned the flower shop, we just had opened, and your sister Melody had come down on her lunch hour because she worked at the bank and introduced herself and was telling me about you. And Melody was like, Oh, I missed the flower shop. So if you ever need any help, if you want me to come and fluff your Christmas trees or do anything, I'm here for you. And we're just like, Whoa, what a nice lady.

SPEAKER_02 2:10

Yeah, she always loved going to your shop and helping out and stuff. So yeah.

SPEAKER_00 2:14

So then she introduced her. So tell me about the shop that you and your sister owned. Is that correct?

SPEAKER_02 2:20

We did, yeah. Right out of right out of college, we had a shop. I wanted a different shop for sure. I'd worked at a shop in the Sterling Rock Falls area from the age of 16 through high school and then junior college. And right after college, a shop came for sale in Polo. And my sister and I bought it. And my sister Melody had a cake business at that time, wedding cake business. So we kind of combined the two. And we owned that for four years. But yeah, I was just in Polo, which is just north of Dixon where you were. I was a great little, great little business, but I knew that I wanted more than this. I mean, Polo was only 2,500 people back then. And so I wanted more.

SPEAKER_00 2:58

Did you start working in a flower shop when you were young? What made you want to go into this business? How did that journey begin, Brent?

SPEAKER_02 3:06

That actually happened. My dad died when I was young. I was 11, and we had all these plants and dish gardens and flowers delivered to us at the house and everything. And I wanted to keep them uh for uh as long as I could alive. And so I got really interested in growing and grafting, and I really wanted a job in a greenhouse really bad. Uh but when I turned 16, there weren't any job offerings or openings out there at that time. And I wanted a car also, so I needed a job. So it worked hand in hand. But yeah, a little flower shop there did, and I worked there, like I said, through high school and college, and and then I was just a little over 21 years old when we bought the shop in Polo. So long time ago.

SPEAKER_00 3:46

That's impressive. That's impressive.

SPEAKER_02 3:48

Geez, 40 years ago.

SPEAKER_00 3:51

Can't be. We're not that old yet, Brent. Come on.

SPEAKER_02 3:54

Right? Right.

SPEAKER_00 3:57

Right, right. So what was next? What was after Polo? You said you know you wanted more. What was the more that you were going for?

SPEAKER_02 4:07

I did. Also, right after college, I attended the American Florida Arts School in Chicago with Jim Moretz. And that's where I got really introduced to AIFD. He actually symposium was in 1982 in Chicago, and Jim Moretz did a big luncheon there. So that's where I got to meet Bobby Ecker and of course Jim and so many other AIFD members. And I knew at that point that's something I really wanted to be a part of. So it was my goal to make sure that I got my AIFD credentials before I sold our shop in Polo, which I did pass back then. It was phase one and phase two. But then got that and went on from there. After Polo, I did work in uh Bloomington, Illinois briefly for an AIFD member and realized downstate wasn't for me. I needed to be back up in northern Illinois, Chicago area, and I got a job at Triton College teaching part-time. And that's how I got in the uh student chapter of AIFD. I became their advisor and did that for five years and actually taught part-time for the next 24 years at different colleges all across, you know, northeastern Illinois. So yeah, I've been busy ever since.

SPEAKER_00 5:20

That's where the love for teaching and educating really came in.

SPEAKER_02 5:26

It is, it is, and I I had really good teachers in high school, and they really taught me the fundamentals of teaching. And there's nothing better than when you can take a student who has never touched a flower or never had any experience at all, and you watch them get it. And there is just nothing that that's the best feeling in the world. And one of my teachers, when he retired, I wrote him a really nice letter and it says it's because of him that I was able to feel comfortable in teaching today. And it is amazing. It still is. Now I'm back to teaching, it still is, it's just a really fulfilling feeling when you see someone who didn't quite get it or didn't quite understand, and then they it clicks and they get it and they take off and run with it. And it's just fun to watch, watch them grow. That's half the fun.

SPEAKER_00 6:12

Yeah, Lori, you know that as a teacher.

SPEAKER_01 6:14

Yeah, yeah. Those aha moments are what make it all worthwhile.

unknown 6:19

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 6:19

So on part of that journey, talking education, you're talking AIFD, but you had a little bit in wholesale as well.

SPEAKER_02 6:26

I had a friend that introduced me to wholesale companies. She thought I'd be really good at it, and which I I didn't agree with there. They nah, I really don't, but I did. I I worked for a wholesale company uh for over two years, and I'm really glad I did because that's where I learned uh so much about where everything's coming, where all the flowers are coming from, and the botanical names and uh everything about them. And and I'm still amazed at how we get products so quickly. And my gosh, over the years, look at all the different products we're getting now compared to what we got back in the 90s when I was doing it.

SPEAKER_00 6:56

With some of your experience that you had in a different position, you understand what we're doing with Flower Click and how difficult it is to take pictures and have them online on websites. I mean, how photography is really tough to do of flowers, right?

SPEAKER_02 7:15

Oh my gosh. I tell people here, I'd rather take pictures of kids, I think, than of flowers. They're much easier, I think, to get a kid to do something than to get that flower to do what I want it to do. And and you would think it would be so simple, but it's not. It is not. You look at that arrangement, like it looks great, and then you take a picture, like, oh no.

SPEAKER_00 7:38

Yeah, it's a challenge.

SPEAKER_02 7:40

Yeah, it is a challenge.

SPEAKER_00 7:45

Yeah, it is. Okay, so then you did wholesale, you worked a little bit in photography or creating images to be taken for websites, and then you also had flower shop in Geneva, right?

SPEAKER_02 7:59

I did, I did. My wife and I, we started a company called JBL Designs in 2002, the year we got married, actually, is when we did that. And we had that, and we grew it to a point where I couldn't do it on my own anymore. I had, you know, high school college kids for runners and drivers and setup and tear down for weddings and events, but it was really difficult to find, you know, good help. And uh so yeah, it was it was time to sell it, and uh which I did and I sold it to my competitor in Geneva, and which was the best thing I ever did. And he and I worked so well together, and we just kind of merged my JBL and his shop in Geneva. His company was right in downtown Geneva, where I was at the edge of Geneva, and I in like a warehouse storefront where I could book weddings and funerals and everything. So we we combined the two, and it worked. When he bought my company, he said, I want you to work with us, and I said, I hadn't decided yet what I wanted to do. And he said, Well, just try it for a few months. And I ended up being there over nine years. So I think I I think we worked it out okay.

SPEAKER_00 9:01

Yeah, yeah. Wow, it was beautiful. You posted pictures, it was a gorgeous store, and that was you know, merchandising was exquisite, really. Wow, that what a nice store that was, Brent. Really, really well done.

SPEAKER_02 9:17

As you and I, Bonnie, we both know we we're people, people, people, people person. So we have to be around people, and I always enjoy that. We did a lot of you know fundraisers and public awareness events and stuff in Geneva quite a bit. And uh yeah, it was fun, and and people could hardly wait till I changed the windows each time, whether it was for Christmas or whatever event was coming on. But uh yeah, I I did give them, I gave them a three-year notice that we were moving to Arizona, so yep, so they had plenty, plenty of time to get ready. But last year I actually went back and did their Christmas installation for them this year and kind of trained their now manager, so she'll be doing it on her own now this year. She's doing a great job. She's doing a great job. I do miss people.

SPEAKER_00 9:58

A three-year notice is amazing, Brent.

SPEAKER_02 10:02

We had a 10-year plan, and when it was coming up, it's like, okay, dude, we're leaving. And as soon as our son Bryce graduates high school, we're out of here. So that was a three year. So yeah, your notice.

SPEAKER_00 10:13

And now you have uh an amazing opportunity. I I should say it goes both ways, right? So you have a great opportunity, and they have been blessed with you to be able to work for them. I think that's pretty amazing. Tell us a little bit about that.

SPEAKER_02 10:30

Well, thank you. Yeah, once we realized Phoenix was going to be our next home, I reached out to again AI of D people and said, Hey, I'm coming out there. You know, in the next six to nine months, do you know anybody? And uh good friend of ours, Brian Vetter, gave me a list. And Brian actually does classes here for the Arizona State Florist Association here at Arizona Flower Market. He said, I think you would really like this place. So I I emailed and then I got a phone call back, and we talked on the phone several times. The company had just been sold about the same time I started looking. So um, anyway, several phone calls and emails, and they flew me out in March of uh 21, 20, yeah, 21. I liked it. It's it's something I had not seen before, where you have a wholesale retail division all in one under one roof. And they even have a greenhouse indoors here, which is pretty cool. And I had never seen that uh before. But yeah, it's it's a huge, huge company, but it's it's family-owned, and it's still a really hometown feeling, which is what I'm used to and always have been used to. So they created a position for me, and I'm uh staff development, which I again get to teach again. So any new hires we get, I get to work with them and do that. We have a production team here, and I help them get faster in their times to get so many done. We like to do about 25 arrangements in 25 minutes or less, if we can, from start to finish. Everything's green, it's just putting them together. So we work on speed quite a bit and then design techniques. And now we're totally into shooting videos for our YouTube channel and do uh we have a huge DIY center here, which that's totally new to me. I'm not used to having that. The holidays, like Valentine's Day, for instance, well, gentlemen come in, they'll go in our market cooler, you buy a bunch of roses, you know, 25 stems, and they'll come out with that and a vase and a bunch of greens, and they'll put it together themselves at our DIY center. And that table was packed all day long. And we're there to guide them, we'll help them get started, but they make it on their own, and they're they just think that it's so special, and it is. But every day somebody will come in and want to buy their own flowers and their own container. We have tools here they can use, and they go to work and get it done. So it's a big hit out here. It really is. So, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 12:46

Let me ask you about the DIY center. Is that more the wholesale side, or is that retail or kind of like right down the middle, price-wise, is what I'm wondering.

SPEAKER_02 12:56

No, it's total retail. It's total retail price because we are wholesale and retail both. Our market cooler is set up where it's priced out for retail. It's all retail pricing. But if we have wholesale customers that come in like we used to in the mornings, go to our suppliers or wholesalers, you can go in and still buy right off the market floor, but then they get the wholesale price. That's not you know for the public to see just the retail pricing. So, no, the DIY center is totally, totally all retail oriented. So, yeah, we'll have about 10 to 12 designers here full-time working in our design center, and they're doing production work, and then they're also doing daily deliveries. We do roughly two to 250 deliveries a day out of our building, and holidays, we're pushing that to about 2,000 a day for like Valentine's Day and Mother's Day, things like that. So big operation.

SPEAKER_00 13:44

Think of the difference from polo to where you are now.

SPEAKER_02 13:49

Oh my god. The only huge difference, which I keep telling them, you know, yes, it's hot here this time of the year, but I said, But on Valentine's Day, you don't have to triple and quadruple wrap your flowers because it's 35 below wind chill. You don't have to worry about that out here. Not at all. And when it's hot, yeah, when it's hot, yeah, you can't leave anything in the still, no, I'll take the heat over that any day.

SPEAKER_01 14:13

Brent, I have a question, and it's something that I keep talking to our flower click members about over and over. I I was listening in with Society of American Florists, they had a round table all about seed your future, which is a program that helps develop interest in this industry for young people, you know, trying to get young people more engaged in our industry. And people were talking about, you know, how to find employees and keep employees. And your program or your company is so large. My question is, how do you find so many great employees that stay? What are your secrets?

SPEAKER_02 15:04

Good question. And yeah, being you know, shop owner myself all those years, it was always very difficult to find help and good good quality help. Uh, what we are very fortunate here, we actually have a high school not that far away that has a wonderful floriculture program on the high school campus, and they have an actual running flower shop on campus and a very good display teacher. And I've been there several times doing workshops. Actually, I think two or three of our employees now are actually graduates of that high school and took that program. And one's been here, I think she said maybe 16 years now, and the other one, I think she's here about 10. And so we're we're constantly getting kids, high school kids, and that flower shop on campus, it runs itself. They they learn how to do everything from designing to buying to managing everything. They do it all. It's a beautiful little shop on campus. I am very impressed with that. We also, um, since I've been out here, we're reaching out to our local FFA chapters, and I actually have a group coming in. We have a big show here on September 17th. We have FFA groups coming in, and I'm gonna start doing workshops on their campuses as well, and that's just another avenue. We've been working with them with AIFD now for the last several years, and and that's a that's a group of untapped talent that we need to deal with more. But any any of these young people I've met are hungry, they're like sponges, and uh so that's how we get a lot of our help is through the schools out here, it works great.

SPEAKER_00 16:34

Great, great, it's a great great resource. Wow, it's a great resource. So, have you gotten involved in the student chapters of AIFD around your area there? Because I know you are very involved up north. Is there a local chapter in that area?

SPEAKER_02 16:52

No, there is not. California is the closest one, but I have not. I'm hoping to at least get a trip in hopefully next year, and to do an AIRS program out there. And you know, AIRS programs are so important. Anytime we can get any AIFD members involved in that, we we certainly do. Since being out here, I'm now the Southwest regional rep for AIFD. So I'm got a lot of trips coming up, trying to see as many people as I can here in Phoenix. This is a great hub. We have a lot of events right here, so not to go too far, and I could see a ton of people, ton of AIFD members here. As I mentioned, we have a big show because we have a dueling designers competition, and we have five contestants, and they're all AIFD members from our area. We just started that a year ago when I got here, but it'll be a yearly event.

SPEAKER_00 17:35

That is a good time. The Arizona flower market where you're working is so big into education and giving back to the industry. I mean, it's fantastic. I was there at Arizona State last year, I think, and I was just so impressed. Your owners are amazing and and they do a lot, not just with education, but even with social media. Don't you have one girl who's devoted to the social media?

SPEAKER_02 18:00

Yes, I do. The uh yeah, Alexis. Yeah, she's awesome. She's the one that choreographs all of our videos. We just got the big screen, 65-inch TVs are all through the market. So I'm up there doing DIY arrangements, and we have uh tours of our cooler, what's new, what's in, all that. We have three different screens running daily now. And uh it's good. Yeah, they're all about education. And like like we say here, we're not here just to educate you know our uh staff, of course. We're here to educate the public and our customers. And anybody that wants to come up and learn anything, all they have to do is ask.

SPEAKER_01 18:31

Here's my big question: Are you guys on TikTok?

SPEAKER_02 18:35

Okay, so yes, I believe Alexis is on TikTok. I personally am not. I I probably should be, I probably should be, but I know Alexis is, and they do a lot of fun little skits in October's breast cancer awareness month.

SPEAKER_01 18:49

I found you! I found Arizona Flower Market.

SPEAKER_02 18:53

Do you see? We're there, we're there. Yeah, she posts a lot of different things on there.

SPEAKER_01 18:57

I'm following you.

SPEAKER_02 19:00

Well, good, good, yeah, I yeah, tick tock.

SPEAKER_01 19:03

Perfect. Yeah, love it, love it, I'm so happy now. So happy now. Okay, so I have a question for you. Evening, she said, if you type out any question that you want, and I thought of one this morning. If you had five minutes and you had the ear of the entire floral industry, I mean everyone in our industry was in an audience, and you were the only one on stage, and no one was allowed to leave the room for five minutes. What would you want them to know? You could say anything to them. It had to be about our industry, though. I mean, you couldn't just say nice, which would be a good thing, but what would you want them to know?

SPEAKER_02 20:07

What would I want them to know? I think I that's a really good question. Boy, there's a lot of I think the thing that always hits me the most isn't it? I want to say treat people like you want to be treated, not only your customers but your staff, but it's so important to educate your team and to educate your customers. And and life is so much easier for everybody if we're all on the same page, and if we can just teach everybody, you know, the the basic elements and principles and just every day just use those. And you know, when you have beginning students, they want to know the the cool trends now. I said you can learn the cool trends once you learn the basics. Once you get the basic technique down and you learn all the basics of design, then you can go and you can do all the fun tricks and trades. But I think just just train people, just yeah, treat people how you want to be treated and and educate, educate, educate. Like I can't stress that enough. It just makes everything so much better and so much easier. It really does. I think that would be it. I think that's good.

SPEAKER_00 21:19

Lori, the only thing I would say is that when you're asked to get on stage and give a five-minute presentation, it takes us two hours to really figure out exactly what we want to say through those five minutes to be really impactful. So, Brent, you did great on the fly.

SPEAKER_01 21:38

I I didn't want you to think about just whatever was on your heart, that's what it needed to be. And the first thing you said was what was on your heart. Treat people the way you want to be treated, and that is truth. Right. Be kind, right? Be kind treat your customers, treat your employees, be kind, just let's all just be nice. And and like you said, to start with the basics, don't forget to teach, make everything a teachable moment because that's how we learn, right? We're all on this planet to keep learning. That's what we do, that's how we get better every single day. So I'm with you. I would be giving you a standing ovation if I was in that audience.

SPEAKER_02 22:21

Well, thank you. Thank you. It's just it's just always been really important to me. It really is.

SPEAKER_00 22:26

You're welcome.

SPEAKER_02 22:27

Yeah, thank you.

SPEAKER_00 22:28

One more question. Yeah, go ahead. Your favorite flower, Brent. Your favorite flower.

SPEAKER_02 22:34

Cala. Cala lily is my favorite.

SPEAKER_00 22:37

Really?

SPEAKER_02 22:38

Always been, you know, me it means strength, and it's very peaceful. Yeah, I've always loved the cala's. And I I love the mini calls too, don't get me wrong, I love all the colors, but just the majestic, regular, open-cut cala is my favorite.

SPEAKER_00 22:55

Interesting. And you say because of strength?

SPEAKER_02 22:57

Strength and stability, it's just a very peaceful flower and stuff. And I've always I just like the serenity of it. And uh, yeah, as a as a joke, my buddy Pete, you know, Pete Samuk, I've always said, hey, Pete, if my time comes, 400 calors. That's what I want. 400. 400. Minimum, minute. So I told everybody out here.

SPEAKER_00 23:19

And he shakes his head.

SPEAKER_02 23:20

I told everybody out of here, hey, something happens, 400 calors, do it.

SPEAKER_01 23:27

400? Wow.

SPEAKER_02 23:29

I love it. That's impressive. My daughter Laura, she is uh learning to tattoo, to give tattoos. So our son Bryce has one, and I'm going to get one under an extra. And it's gonna be a cala, Lily. It will be a cala, but a cool cala. And Laura says, What do you mean by a cool cala? I don't know. I will send it to you.

SPEAKER_00 23:52

Beautiful. Well, thank you, Brent.

SPEAKER_02 23:55

Oh, thank you so much. I love what you ladies do. I love your program.

SPEAKER_01 23:58

Thank you. 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.

SPEAKER_00 24:19

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