Interview with Julie Poeltler AIFD PFCI, IMF, CAFA on the importance of Education and more...

Episode 043: Vonda had a nice coffee chat with Julie Poeltler AIFD  PFCI, IMF, CAFA  chat  about the importance of Education in the floral industry.  Julie shares why even the most educated and best designers need to continue to learn.  Julie is the owner of Julie's Fountain of Flowers in Lone Tree, IA.
Julie is one of the instructors in Flower Prep School and the Strategic Creative Director of One Clique.

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

Transcript

Speaker 1 0:04

Welcome to the business and pleasure of flowers . We're your hosts, fondle of fever and Lori Wilson . And we believe that business and Fen are a perfect combination. Kind of like us Vonda .

Speaker 2 0:19

I'm here with Julie polar member of the American Institute of floral designers and professional flora communicators. International. Julie is the owner of fountain of flowers in lone tree, Iowa. She's truly a small business owner. Now, Julie, how big is lone tree? About 1500 people. Wow. Okay. And close to Iowa city though, correct? Yes. About 24 miles. Okay. Now you're very active in your hometown and community as well as the floral industry. You've presented on the main stage of AISD symposium and you've been behind the scenes for many successful programs. Also, Julie, I'm so happy you joined me today. It's not often I get to have a guest face-to-face but here we are. Thank you for having me. It's nice to be here today. I'd like to ask you about the relationship between education in your field and a successful business. You're a Teleflora education specialist traveling around the U S sharing your knowledge of design and business with others, right? Correct. Okay. Well, we've talked about the fact that the number of shop owners and employees who attend these educational events has declined. Now we could go into why, but that's been analyzed over and over in the industry. What I'd like you to share is why you personally feel the need to attend design classes, seminars, and events. Now you're the specialist and you know it all right. Well, I don't know it all. That's why I like going to classes or presentations, because it's like when a writer has writer's block, floral designer also will have a block, they'll have a creativity block. And when you go to a presentation or you go to a zoom meeting on a particular subject, there's one thing that you take away. You may take away several things, but there's all you have to do is take away one. And that one thing unlocks the block that you're having in the imagination or in creativity, it makes you remember something that you learned many years ago, or maybe it's one way of doing it. And it was an aha moment going , uh , ha maybe it was a trend color that you didn't know. You were thinking in the back in your head that someone came to you to do a wedding. And this actually happened. And she was showing me her storyboard of what she was going to be using at that time. And I just could not get it. I could not get it. I could not get it. And then I went to AFD the following July and there was that color. And then I understood. So for months I stewed about that color of how that was going to work, whatever color combination it was. And then boom, there, it was right in front of me and I'm like, that's all I needed. That's what I came for. I came for something else, but I came away with how to work with that color for a wedding. So it revives you, you get reinvented. I think when you go to a presentation or attend a zoom meeting on floral design,

Speaker 3 3:32

It gives you inspiration. Right? I always feel it's inspiring. I actually watched a program. You did virtual program just last week. And I was just like, Oh my gosh, you know, it did it just sparks those little seeds that were planted many years ago perhaps. And you're like, Oh my gosh, that's coming back. Or I remember when we used to do that. Well, think of Joyce Mason Monheim who just presented the one on Halloween with the cobwebs and the styrofoam. Absolutely. We did that years ago. And it was like, that was always one of my favorites. And I was like, Oh my gosh, that's here. It is again.

Speaker 2 4:12

And when she presented it, it was like this new thing. It's the way she talked about it. It was just so great just to see her going. Yeah, I gotta , I gotta go get some styrofoam and a glue gun. Okay .

Speaker 3 4:24

Don't you think sometimes it's just hearing that person's enthusiasm about whether it's a new technique or an old technique revived that gives you energy as well.

Speaker 2 4:36

Absolutely. Absolutely. When she presented it also, she gave you a takeaway to take it away and do it yourself. If you haven't done it for awhile , do it again and see how it makes you feel and makes you feel happy.

Speaker 3 4:49

And that's what you did in your presentation as well. You started it, you showed us a technique, which is what we all want to know. Right. We want to know behind the scenes what's happening. And then from there you'd show the whole design completed, which is again what we want to do. But with a short amount of time, it's hard to get all that

Speaker 2 5:07

Correct. But thank you for the compliment. It was great. This is my first time doing a zoom presentation like that. I learned a lot, but you know, after I locked away for about three or four days, I'm like, okay, I think I can do it again. And then we can improve on it. So it's sort of like a new challenge,

Speaker 3 5:24

Definitely a challenge. The whole COVID thing is a challenge, for sure, for some reason, some small shops or larger shops, just rather keep it status quo. You know, they'd rather do things the way they've always done them. What could you say to a shop owner, her sitting there saying I can't get out anyway. Why should I go to an online class and try to learn something? Because you know, I know everything anyway,

Speaker 2 5:50

Connection for a long time, we had to figure out each and every one of us, how , if we were a shop owners or if we designers, how were we going to do business from day to day w with this new rural Acosta ride and we lost that in touch, we couldn't go see people. We couldn't go hug anybody. We couldn't shake anybody's hand for a long time. We all had to figure out in America and around the world, we had to figure out how to do things differently that we could touch each other and let them know that we care about them. That we're still here. We can send cards in the mail. We can call them on the phone. We can text them . You can send flowers. And that's what a lot of people did. But if you attend a meeting or you go to a zoom meeting or a presentation, it's a connection you lost by flying somewhere or driving somewhere. When you see that person teach you, then it's like, Oh, this is so exciting. And it might be so elementary, but it was so fun because it was elementary. But you had a connection with the product of the floral product. And they had the connection with the instructor. So it was like, why wouldn't somebody want to go? It's like buying a pair of shoes. Why would you not want to go to buy a pair of new shoes for Easter? Why would you not want to go and attend a class? Cause you get to learn. I always say, just learn one thing. That's all you have to do. But a lot of people,

Speaker 3 7:12

Well think they know it. All right. My point is, if a flower shop is successful and they're doing everything, they think the right way and things are going okay, why do I need to learn anything? You can never stop learning. I know ,

Speaker 2 7:30

Uh , you know, and let them go. If they're the ones that are the know-it-alls great, they're not listening and they're not learning. I think the ones that are coming and connecting and enjoying each other, whether it's helping the back room to do something or just being in the audience, you're there, you're supporting them. You're connecting. You're, you're making our industry stronger because you're there and you're present.

Speaker 3 7:54

But I think that some shops truly think they know it all. And what I want to go back to is Kodak, Kodak films, who thought they knew everything, right? They knew that they were the biggest and the strongest and much like shop owners. I think we're sitting back going, I got this and they don't have this because Kodak is not the big guy anymore. And flower shops who think they are the big guy you mentioned earlier when we're talking, if they're not, they don't know about trends. They will know new things that are happening in the industry. They could still be sitting back in the Dustin, not succeeding.

Speaker 2 8:29

Well, and look at you. You're invited me to do this photo shoot with you, but look at how many new flowers I got to see new product that you told me, the developing. And I got to see them. And I'm like, Oh my God, this is coming. This new kind of carnations coming or this new Rose color is coming that I've never seen. I mean, you give me so many wonderful opportunities and I can't ever thank you enough. Look at the expansion of like, Oh, I can't wait. Yeah. Yeah. That's and there's those

Speaker 3 8:56

Advantages out there all the time. You just have to

Speaker 2 8:58

Take them and move forward with them. Yeah.

Speaker 3 9:01

So next question. Do you have a business secret? You can share with us

Speaker 2 9:07

The business secret many years ago, there was this gentleman that lived in our town and he lived about three blocks, just East of the flower shop. He was about my age at the time and he rode a motorcycle and he had a beard and he was sort of cute. And , um, he would come in the store and he worked at the gas station and he was moving and he's going back to Detroit and he brought me this rock and this rock has big. Oh , it's about the size of maybe three pounds of butter. It's Brown, dark Brown. And it's got indentations like little, like if you took a , a paper punch and that little paper punch holes, and it's got those little paper punch holes all over this rock on one side of it, the other side is sort of flattened . It sets. And it just minds its own business. And it gave me this rock and he told me it was from the moon and I believed him. And he said, this will give you good luck in business. And you will succeed in your business. And I've kept this rock. I move it from side to side, but it's always been in the store. I've never moved it out of the store. It'll stay with me for the rest of my life. And I swear to God, that's the reason I've been so lucky in my 40 years of business.

Speaker 3 10:20

So is this moon rock? Everybody needs one. That's what I was going to say. The success is find a moon rock and bring it into your , so no , it probably has something to do with the guy who gave it to him .

Speaker 2 10:32

I don't know what he was smoking, but it was something.

Speaker 3 10:37

Okay. Next question. What do you love most about the flower business?

Speaker 2 10:42

There's a lot of things. I love to see new products. I love to see SAF when they have the beautiful, all the, the, all the flowers that are coming in that are new products . That's it ? New varieties. Thank you. And I love seeing all those do colors and the way they shape the pedal count. It's just so unbelievable what they go through in that tiny little seed or in that tiny little root to make that beautiful flower all the time and all the genetics they study. I have no clue what all they go through, but when it comes out, it's this beautiful flower. It's unbelievable to me. Yeah.

Speaker 3 11:20

Yeah. So new products or new varieties

Speaker 2 11:22

Of something you really love really love about the flower business. Yes.

Speaker 3 11:26

So what's your biggest challenge?

Speaker 2 11:29

Oh, the biggest challenge I think is when things are tough that it's okay. Just go home, get a good night's rest. And the next day start over. It'll be totally different when you have a down it's okay. It only lasts for a short period of time. Just go to sleep for the night and get up. There's a new day dawning . I think sometimes when there's struggles, that's hard when you own your own business, because sometimes you feel like you're just swimming in swimming and swimming and you can't get any air, but you just need to take a deep breath and step back and then start the whole day over with a whole new attitude. Don't go in there with the same attitude, because it'll just keep it going down and down and down. So of the struggles it would just be when I was first in business. Now, if yours , to me, that it's easier, but it was in those first few years of making sure you had enough money. And then, you know, you had the customers and you wanted to make sure everybody was happy. And it was just a lot of little things, but now it's easier to me because I've got a beautiful customer base. But when you do have a bad day , you just sort of have to wipe it away. You just got to take a shower at night. And like I say, wash away the day

Speaker 3 12:40

You do. I love that. I just love that, but that's true. Tomorrow's a whole new day and just put the one behind you and get up and start the next day. And you Julie have had some really great ideas during COVID marketing ideas. One of them I thought was so cool. Were the door knockers that you were used ? All that was really, really great.

Speaker 2 13:01

It was the time in the spring when the state of Iowa closed our businesses. And I , I couldn't believe it. It's like, I'm sort of talking right now. I was sort of shocked. And how could they do that? How could they call me non-essential I think they could have chose a different word. So I had it right . The governor at tiller about that. And I thought the word was terrible. I thought they could have used a different word in that two weeks of figuring out, Hey, I got to figure something out. And I think we all went through it, no matter what life we were in, we , everybody had to learn to how to manage in this situation of this rollercoaster that we're on. It was Easter time. And there was a florist friend in Sioux city Elisa , and she was sending flowers to her mother in lone tree. And I was down on the dumps and she said, Julie, make it easy. Give them a D I, Y I've been someone DIY my door is open. They can pick them up at the doorstep. She was the one that I just sort of just gave him my problems too . And she answered me and she's much younger than I am. And I remember watching her grow up and her grandmother was a beautiful florist herself. And now she is very successful in her own, right? In Sioux city, council Bluffs, one of them, I can't remember which, and anyway, she gave me that idea. So I took it as Easter was going to be two lips in a bag with all sorts of Easter things. You know how you get Easter things. So, yeah, I had files. I had chewing gum. I had things that were around the store that I just put everybody in these Easter baskets that they bought for, I think $35. And they had two bundles of tulips. Once those sold really great. I go, Oh my goodness. Now Easter's coming. I got to do something else because now people wanted a delivery, a no-contact delivery. And I go, well, not make a door knocker. So I just rolled up some papers, some beautiful paper. And I just made a cone shape, put on some little bit of ribbon that you always have in your little magic boxes. That's your plumber shop. And then I just filled them with that one bundle of tulips. And I sold them and everybody went nuts. And the more I made them , the more glamorous they became, because I took all this stuff from prom that you, because we weren't going to have prom. And I decorated these door knockers and on this paper,

Speaker 3 15:19

Oh , I know there were so cool. I saw those on social media and I'm like, Oh my gosh, that's just brilliant. And people were going crazy.

Speaker 2 15:25

People were going crazy. Yeah. And then I did it again for mother's day. They , they loved it. They loved the whole.

Speaker 3 15:31

And then the other thing you did is an open air market too, because we're still, I think some shops still are not open. They don't want to open the doors to the public or very limited. You're going to be a little challenging when it comes to winter. You can't have an open air market in the winter in Iowa.

Speaker 2 15:46

No , but you can sell for Christmas. I think we can still do it with a porch pots and Christmas REITs . And we can still do all sorts of things outside that people will want. Mean if you don't want it in the store anymore , you just put a price tag on it, put it outside your shop. And, and people are looking at that.

Speaker 3 16:04

The other thing I know you're working on is doing something, maybe a virtual open house this year.

Speaker 2 16:09

Yeah. I'm working on that. I start out and then I stopped and then I started out and then I stopped because I'm not sure what I want to do. I want everything to be safe for everybody, but it will be virtual somehow. Yeah.

Speaker 3 16:21

What would you like to share with our friends who are listening that might help them through this time? I think you maybe hit on that with saying, just get up and start the new day, but is there,

Speaker 2 16:32

Oh yeah, this is so great right now in America and around the world, everybody is so creative. I have taken more good out of this rollercoaster that we're in then bad because I think America, I'm going to just pinpoint America. I think that they are so creative. I mean, you look at everybody, the restaurants have become creative. The floral industry's become creative. The airlines have become creative to get their customers to come back and to come back the hotel industry. I just find it fascinating to find out how many different ways people are doing business differently than they used to. And I think it's sort of good in some ways for some businesses. I know probably some people who own big buildings that were used to have rent that may not be so hot because everybody has found out that having their offices, that our home is more financially beneficial for them. But I think just get so creative. This is the time you've got time to get creative and do things that you've never done before. I mean, take an online class or maybe do something online with YouTube, with a gym class or something. But this is so much fun right now, I think is everybody is so creative. I just wonder around and I'm aimlessly sometimes going, Oh my God, why didn't I think of that this company is doing. So I think it's just it's time for you to get creative because everybody's getting creative.

Speaker 3 18:01

Yeah. It's that pivot, but where are you going to pivot and go?

Speaker 2 18:04

And it used to be we're so technology challenged. Well, no, because now they're wanting our imagination or creativity to be better. I think creativity right now is just like, people are missing it. People aren't talking about it, but imagination and creativity right now is like out there. Yeah. And they have, we haven't used it. Like we've had to use it here. I hadn't even thought of that. Yeah. I just think it's fast .

Speaker 3 18:28

Wow. It is fascinating when you think about it, even staying at the hotel, right? Yeah . I mean that they don't do the rooms. They don't do anything. They're one person at a desk, but they're being creative. They're getting people in and yeah.

Speaker 2 18:40

And you'll go home and you'll tell everybody, Hey, it was great. We stayed at this hotel. Yeah . And we're safe and everything's good. And yeah, but just, just , uh, just everybody just being totally different in how they do business. And it's going to be interesting if when and everything comes back to normal where we stay the same or will it be consistently getting more creative and more imagination

Speaker 3 19:04

Working for us? That's hopefully that continues. What Julie is your favorite flower. Oh, wow.

Speaker 2 19:12

That's a great question. It's hard to pinpoint one. I think one of my favorites is the flower Phreesia for the way it blooms it blooms on a very tiny little stock. It's a very delicate little flower and has these little blooms that come out one at a time. And they bloom from the bottom to the edge. And Jay shwanky always says, don't cut them when they come in, just put them right into a vase because it's capillary stems and that doesn't take up water. So you don't cut them. You put them in a vase without cutting them and I'll be darn if those things don't bloom and they're just the most beautiful thing. And they smell like, okay ,

Speaker 3 19:50

Real peppery smell, smell heavenly. Yeah. Oh, they're just having life . That's one. That would be one. Beautiful. Beautiful. Okay. So then our one podcast question that we always ask at the end of the podcast is what is the one thing giving you life right now?

Speaker 2 20:08

Well, right now, probably this photo shoot , because I think it's a wonderful compliment that you feel that I can bring so much to the table to your company. Sometimes I don't feel like I'm worthy to do that, but I just think it's really wonderful that you've asked me to do this photo shoot with you this week. I find it truly rewarding. I have fun with it sometimes. I don't think I do. My job is good, but I learn a lot and I enjoy it. And so I always want to thank you so that the photo shoot this week is , um, it's a , it's really a good one. It's a good one.

Speaker 3 20:42

It's gone well. And what most people don't know is that you give me inspiration.

Speaker 2 20:49

And that's why I have you here is because of all your great ideas, your inspiration and unbelievable talent. And you will always underplay yourself for sure. Well, Julie , we do. And thanks for being with me today.

Speaker 4 21:03

Well , so Fonda, I don't know if you know this story that I need to share it with you. I'm gonna share with you right now. This , this a Julie story, Julie story. It is it's my first, I don't know if it's the very first time I was face to face with her, but it was my first time to like really get to know her. I've always known of Julie because of you. I think I met her one time prior to this, but it was when you were presenting at AIF . AISD was that two years ago, three years, 2018, 2018. Okay. So I know I'd met her prior at SAF, but I didn't work along side her. This is my Julie story. And when I became, so just in love with her, because she's the sweetest and funniest. I mean, she's funny. Anyway. So you had us all working on your team and of course you had all these designers and then you had me , the other one I'm going to throw under the bus here, along with myself is your daughter-in-law Erica. So you had Erica and I, which in our defense, we don't really know how to do stuff, but we were trying, you put us on a project. It wasn't that big geocode , but it was some big thing that required me to use scissors, which, you know, I've been using scissors since kindergarten. So not hard. And Erica was underneath it and she was doing something too. So I was on top with scissors or anyway, Julie was telling me, here's what you're going to do. You were over here and you are not to be bothered. Julie kept reminding us. Don't bother Rhonda , if you have questions, come to me ask, okay, Eric and I were very nervous because we wanted so badly to please you. I kid you not the very first snip of whatever I was snipping . I got my finger. Like, I mean, I sliced it and I thought I did. Did I just do that? And I looked down, blood is everywhere. Erica is under me . She's looking up. She looks into Chico's. She covered her mouth because she knew an old Julie. And she could tell by the freakout in my face, she calmly walks over and I show her and she just grabs my finger. She has like a tissue grabs it. And she says, come with me, do not make any noise, do not alert Vonda. I'm going to pass out. I'm going to die . Anyway, she takes me over to the table. Of course, had a little your kit. You got a little kit that sucker burned. It was so bad. And Erica couldn't stop laughing and so much. So at one point you said, Erica, what's so funny. And I look at Eric and Eric is like, Oh, Lori just made a joke

Speaker 3 24:28

Was so funny. I didn't know any of that was going on.

Speaker 4 24:33

You're fine. Do not alert. Vaughn . I'm like, gosh, Jewry don't ever tell Vonda. Don't tell her. She'll never let me help her again. But you put like three wrapped it and had to put like three band-aids on there. It really hurt . But I did it. I kept cutting.

Speaker 3 24:53

Kept going. Julie was you're encouraged or she is always that encouraging person. Isn't she?

Speaker 4 25:00

She's so encouraging. And the other thing about her, I mean, you mentioned she's a Teleflora education specialist, but she's a natural teacher again at AISD . She was helping me do things, but through flower prep school, you know, you would teach me one way. She would have come alongside and teach me another. She just has a great heart and super creative. He was talking about how grateful she was to be at the flower click photo shoot . And I just have to say, it's fun for me to watch the two of you in action. I know I wasn't at this one, but I wasn't the one prior. It's amazing how you two play off of each other without even using words, it's just design . Like you'll be doing something and you'll look back and you'll say Julie, and she'll go. Hmm . Yeah. And I'm like, what, what, what language are they speaking right now?

Speaker 3 25:56

It goes the other way too. When she said that was kind of her happy spot to be able to be asked. And I'm like, well, no, no, no, no. We need her. There .

Speaker 4 26:03

He is our strategic creative advisor. So ,

Speaker 3 26:07

And so that's why I need her there with

Speaker 4 26:09

Yeah. Yeah. I think she's great. So I would encourage everyone to follow her on her Facebook page. Julie's fountain of flowers. You can follow her when she does webinars for Teleflora and she does designs for us.

Speaker 3 26:23

She does. And she's also on Instagram. So follow her on Facebook and Instagram and anything. You see that Julie's doing education and also flower prep school. If you'd like to see Julie in that, there you go.

Speaker 5 26:35

We have certainly enjoyed our time together today. And we look forward to being with you guys again, if you have any questions, concerns, comments, anything we would love to hear from you. You can always email Laurie at flower, click.com . Also, if you enjoy our little podcast, go ahead and click that subscribe button. That's very helpful for us. And you can even leave a review and we hope you join us next week. Yes. 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.

Speaker 1 28:09

[inaudible] .