Shownotes
Motivational Quote
Business Inspiration
The origin Luxe Bloom [5:19] The startup lifestyle of an entrepreneur [8:47]Candle Flickering Moments
She didn’t win the Saks Fifth Avenue account … and then this happened! [21:46]Business Building Insight
When developing a product you must have Proof of Concept [7:16] and [12:56] Hugo Boss – the first big account [9:25] Getting visibility in a big way for the first time [15:43] Her two current challenges [18:51] B2B versus B2C thoughts [21:24] Shelley’s QVC experience [23:57]Insightful Stories/Concepts
Fake it til you make it with the Waldorf Historia [10:29] Eat the broccoli on your plate first [27:59] A Bamboo Forest [30:50]Success Trait
Hear Shelley explain her belligerent perseverance [25:31]Productivity/Lifestyle Tool
For Shelley it’s the traditional pencil and paper to make her list of tasks for each day. [27:21]
Contact Links
Website Facebook Twitter Instagram LinkedInIf you found value in this podcast, make sure to subscribe and leave a review in Apple Podcasts or Google Podcasts. That helps us spread the word to more makers just like you. Thanks! Sue
Transcripts
Gift biz unwrapped episode 61,
Speaker:You cannot give up.
Speaker:You can never give up because it's your dream.
Speaker:And you're the one that's going to have to make it
Speaker:a reality.
Speaker:This is John Lee,
Speaker:Dumas of entrepreneur on fire,
Speaker:and you're listening to the gift of biz unwrapped.
Speaker:And now it's time to light it up.
Speaker:Welcome to gift biz,
Speaker:unwrapped your source for industry specific insights and advice to develop
Speaker:and grow your business.
Speaker:And now here's your host,
Speaker:Sue Monheit hi there and welcome to the gift Unwrapped podcast.
Speaker:Whether you own a brick and mortar shop sell online or
Speaker:are just getting started,
Speaker:you'll discover new insight to gain traction and to grow your
Speaker:business. And today I am thrilled to have joining us.
Speaker:Shelly Rosen.
Speaker:Shelly is the founder and CEO of Luxe bloom,
Speaker:which is a venture backed Chicago based startup Lux.
Speaker:Bloom delivers transformative innovation by offering natural long lasting Rose arrangements
Speaker:to luxury business operators on a subscription basis.
Speaker:Luxe bloom roses do not require water or refrigeration to keep
Speaker:their subtle beauty.
Speaker:And they last 60 days,
Speaker:Shelly was an executive director at McDonald's corporation for over 12
Speaker:years there.
Speaker:She directed global strategic planning efforts in the areas of innovation,
Speaker:global brand strategy and issues management.
Speaker:Thanks for joining us,
Speaker:Shelley and welcome to the show.
Speaker:Thank you so great to be here.
Speaker:Is there anything else you think we should add to your
Speaker:intro? Well,
Speaker:I guess we could just tell everybody out there that it's
Speaker:never too late to be a late blooming entrepreneur.
Speaker:So my introduction that you gave was the first part of
Speaker:my life.
Speaker:Now this is the second part,
Speaker:the plan B part,
Speaker:There you go.
Speaker:I am so excited to get into this whole story and
Speaker:I want everybody who is not listening on audio,
Speaker:but anywhere near your computer or when you get to your
Speaker:computer later,
Speaker:you have to look at the product that Shelly has.
Speaker:These roses are on believable,
Speaker:and you're going to hear the whole story right now as
Speaker:we get started.
Speaker:But absolutely definitely when you can,
Speaker:you've got to see this product.
Speaker:It is,
Speaker:you can't really explain it until you see it.
Speaker:That's what I have to say about that.
Speaker:You're right.
Speaker:Sue. You're absolutely right.
Speaker:Seeing is believing.
Speaker:Exactly. So I want to start,
Speaker:and as our listeners know,
Speaker:we like to get a little bit of an indirect feel
Speaker:from you by talking about a motivational candle.
Speaker:If you were to create your very own candle,
Speaker:what color would it be and what would be the quote
Speaker:on that candle?
Speaker:Well, I know for sure my favorite color is red because
Speaker:it's a color of passion and insight and it does so
Speaker:happen to be the top selling Rose color in the world
Speaker:by far Because it's the color of love,
Speaker:right? Red is the color of love.
Speaker:It is a romance color for sure.
Speaker:The top selling Rose color worldwide by 70% of all Rosales
Speaker:is rep.
Speaker:So that's kind of a fun little fact.
Speaker:And I think the word passion is sort of the link
Speaker:to the quote and sort of the idea.
Speaker:And I actually had this hanging on my bedroom door in
Speaker:high school,
Speaker:and I've never really found a quote that beats this quote.
Speaker:And it says winners never quit and quitters never win.
Speaker:And the idea behind this quote is you got to get
Speaker:in the game and you got to go the distance and
Speaker:have the stamina because in the end,
Speaker:if you place enough bets,
Speaker:you're bound to be a winner.
Speaker:So this guides me in my personal and professional life and
Speaker:with my friends and all sorts of things,
Speaker:because especially being an entrepreneur,
Speaker:you cannot give up,
Speaker:you can never give up because it's your dream and you're
Speaker:the one that's going to have to make it a reality,
Speaker:Right? And when you hit obstacles,
Speaker:you just figure out a way around them,
Speaker:over them,
Speaker:under them,
Speaker:through them,
Speaker:whatever you need to do Through that wall.
Speaker:Sue. Absolutely.
Speaker:We were talking before in our pre-chat,
Speaker:if we were going to share with the audience that we
Speaker:know each other,
Speaker:and I've just decided since you brought up where this quote
Speaker:came from Shelly and I have known each other since high
Speaker:school and lost touch,
Speaker:we really haven't talked for a while except at reunions,
Speaker:et cetera.
Speaker:And we were actually pretty close,
Speaker:you know,
Speaker:on and off during high school,
Speaker:actually. Right.
Speaker:And so now we have reestablished our connection and I don't
Speaker:remember that quote,
Speaker:hanging on your door,
Speaker:Shelly. But what I remember about your bedroom is you're super
Speaker:cool up to date furniture.
Speaker:Do you guys remember that modular kind of geometric shaped furniture?
Speaker:Shelly had the latest and the greatest and my bedroom was
Speaker:the old traditional stuff.
Speaker:And I was always so jealous.
Speaker:I just had to throw that in there.
Speaker:So now getting back on topic,
Speaker:I don't know the whole story about the roses.
Speaker:I kind of know from an outside perspective.
Speaker:So I'm going to hear this along with you guys,
Speaker:but I will tell you she is one rock star,
Speaker:not only when she was with McDonald's,
Speaker:but in providing this product.
Speaker:So we are going to carry on here.
Speaker:So let's talk Shelly.
Speaker:Now about Luxe bloom.
Speaker:How in the world did you get this idea of creating
Speaker:a Rose like this?
Speaker:Where did that come from?
Speaker:No, actually I'm going to be real honest.
Speaker:I did not invent the idea of preserving the Rose.
Speaker:The Egyptians 3000 plus years ago,
Speaker:invented preserving with the technique of involving using sugar water and
Speaker:many, many years ago,
Speaker:actually in Japan,
Speaker:a man took the idea of involving which is glycerin water
Speaker:and began to apply it to flowers.
Speaker:So in a market like Japan,
Speaker:the idea of preserving flowers is very much part of the
Speaker:culture where I got the idea for the actual business,
Speaker:because it's virtually unknown in the U S is that was
Speaker:doing some consulting for a company that has what's called a
Speaker:subscription-based business model,
Speaker:which for those of you out there,
Speaker:basically what that means is you pay someone something every month
Speaker:to get that product,
Speaker:Netflix, your garbage removal.
Speaker:Anyway, it's a monthly fee.
Speaker:And in 2009 and 10,
Speaker:I was noticing that the luxury industry was going through a
Speaker:big dramatic downside,
Speaker:no more chocolates on the pillow.
Speaker:The floral industry is shrinking at this time,
Speaker:florists are closing,
Speaker:but yet luxury brands still need to put that last detail
Speaker:to the finish.
Speaker:It's a really long story.
Speaker:How I saw the product and London and worked really hard
Speaker:to try to find well,
Speaker:where do I get it?
Speaker:Because it was not available in America.
Speaker:And I found through some actual connections through McDonald's Ecuador,
Speaker:a farm in Ecuador who made this product.
Speaker:And we began a relationship.
Speaker:It's the only woman owned farm in the entire country of
Speaker:700 Rose farmers.
Speaker:And she was working on this technology.
Speaker:I smashed together the subscription-based business model,
Speaker:which is a winning business model with the idea of providing
Speaker:luxury businesses,
Speaker:Rose arrangements on a recurring basis.
Speaker:And finally,
Speaker:what I want to say about it is in the early
Speaker:stage of a company,
Speaker:when you have an idea,
Speaker:you need to get the proof of concept.
Speaker:You have to vet the idea to see if your promise
Speaker:is there.
Speaker:But I urge all of you out there to make sure
Speaker:that you have a sound business model because you might be
Speaker:able to execute it.
Speaker:But if the financials don't make sense,
Speaker:it's not a good venture.
Speaker:So by combining that with my background at McDonald's and learning
Speaker:about predictability and consistency and creating quality experiences,
Speaker:we've smashed all that together to deliver recurring Rose arrangements,
Speaker:to leading luxury businesses without compromising the beauty that a luxury
Speaker:business demands.
Speaker:Wow. That's a lot of experience and knowledge in a few
Speaker:minutes here.
Speaker:Okay. I want to back it up.
Speaker:And I,
Speaker:again, we see this all the time,
Speaker:give biz listeners,
Speaker:it's watching your environment around you identifying an area where there's
Speaker:a hole,
Speaker:there's a need something's missing.
Speaker:You know,
Speaker:during the time that Shelly's talking about people were cutting back
Speaker:on budget,
Speaker:why would you think even luxury facilities are going to start
Speaker:buying something bigger,
Speaker:better, more beautiful,
Speaker:but Shelly found the way and the system and the foothold
Speaker:in, if you will.
Speaker:The other thing now,
Speaker:Shelly, I want you to share with everybody so they understand
Speaker:how businesses have to start.
Speaker:Where were you conducting your business when you were first starting?
Speaker:Well, I was starting in the basement.
Speaker:There you go.
Speaker:Exactly what I wanted you to tell that I literally took
Speaker:the basement and created a little office and a Rose room
Speaker:area. And my first employee was a floral designer.
Speaker:We took one of the back bedrooms and turned it into
Speaker:her working studio,
Speaker:where the roses were stored and the basis and a little
Speaker:production area.
Speaker:And we would cart the Rose arrangements in and out of
Speaker:the house until the ups and FedEx guys were starting to
Speaker:come every day for pickups.
Speaker:And we basically made it a working office and people would
Speaker:come visit us and we'd have fun lunches cause I had
Speaker:the kitchen,
Speaker:but we made do until we ended up winning the Hugo
Speaker:boss, the count for Christmas of 2013.
Speaker:At that time,
Speaker:we would have had to order five to 6,000
Speaker:rows heads and make 400 rows arrangements to ship to 50
Speaker:Hugo boss stores from Hawaii to Boston.
Speaker:And I was saying to myself,
Speaker:okay, I could move all the furniture out of my living
Speaker:room and like move everything out of my house because I'd
Speaker:have to do that in order to have made this order.
Speaker:So we decided to start looking for space and luckily found
Speaker:a warehouse that had been unoccupied from a former place.
Speaker:And we moved in to the warehouse September,
Speaker:2013, the roses import arrived in October and we made our
Speaker:first huge,
Speaker:huge shipment just in time from the basement to,
Speaker:to get us a particular order out with big pallets and
Speaker:lots of shipping and lots of people helping pull this together.
Speaker:Wow. Were you freaking out when you said yes and agreed
Speaker:to do this job?
Speaker:Well, I think this is part of the,
Speaker:a little bit of the advice.
Speaker:One of the fun stories is my first account was the
Speaker:Waldorf Astoria in New York city,
Speaker:which is one of the most prestigious hotels in America.
Speaker:It's the entire city block of fifth Avenue and 50th presidents
Speaker:at diplomat stay there.
Speaker:And I ended up calling on them.
Speaker:The particular client was showing me the various floral arrangements and
Speaker:they kept saying,
Speaker:well, can you make this,
Speaker:can you make this?
Speaker:And I kept saying yes to her,
Speaker:but on the inside,
Speaker:I was like,
Speaker:I have no idea how I would do it.
Speaker:So I do think there's a little bit of faking it
Speaker:till you make it and having the belief in yourself that
Speaker:you're going to figure it out.
Speaker:Whether that means engaging someone else asking for advice or being
Speaker:honest with the client and saying,
Speaker:okay, I can't make exactly this,
Speaker:but here's what I can do.
Speaker:And so in the Hugo boss situation,
Speaker:once we had already said,
Speaker:we were at the Waldorf and at the Carlyle in New
Speaker:York, they're like,
Speaker:Oh, okay,
Speaker:well then this is a valid term.
Speaker:But in that case,
Speaker:I had never shipped that many Rose arrangements with such high
Speaker:pressure because they were on display for the holidays and our
Speaker:very fancy boutique.
Speaker:So faking it till you make it.
Speaker:And then having the confidence to ask yourself what questions don't
Speaker:I have answered so that I can pull in the right
Speaker:resources to get the job done.
Speaker:And I think that's the point.
Speaker:I mean,
Speaker:there's two things here.
Speaker:Number one is you,
Speaker:when you're presented with these opportunities,
Speaker:even though you're so anxious,
Speaker:grab them because you don't know if they're going to come
Speaker:again and then figure out and be resourceful and call in
Speaker:experts who know whatever you need to do to get the
Speaker:job done then,
Speaker:but don't pass anything up just because you're a little anxious
Speaker:or you don't have the total plan yet big point because
Speaker:a lot of people,
Speaker:you know,
Speaker:especially entrepreneurs who are just starting,
Speaker:there's always the,
Speaker:okay, well,
Speaker:but, or maybe I'll do this,
Speaker:but I mean,
Speaker:how many people do you hear who think they're going to
Speaker:start a business and then they're talking about it forever,
Speaker:or they're going to write that book.
Speaker:Look what Shelley did.
Speaker:I mean,
Speaker:she had some high power.
Speaker:I mean,
Speaker:had you not performed challis,
Speaker:those are big time names that your reputation you would have
Speaker:been in trouble.
Speaker:So it was either going to go really,
Speaker:really well or really not.
Speaker:Well for you,
Speaker:you grabbed on said you were going to do it and
Speaker:look at where you are now.
Speaker:Great insight.
Speaker:Alright. You and I have both been in the marketing advertising
Speaker:world. Share with everybody a little bit about what you're talking
Speaker:about when you say proof of concept.
Speaker:Okay? So in the early stages of a business,
Speaker:you have some idea on a piece of paper,
Speaker:or you may have written a business plan,
Speaker:but you got to prove it,
Speaker:execute it.
Speaker:You've gotta be able to make money on it.
Speaker:You have to deliver on a promise that you're making to
Speaker:your potential customer.
Speaker:So in my case,
Speaker:the proof of concept was one,
Speaker:does anyone even want to buy this?
Speaker:Cause they don't even know about it.
Speaker:No one's ever heard of preserved roses.
Speaker:Two, can I successfully import it from a foreign country having
Speaker:never done that?
Speaker:Sorry, can I make a Rose arrangement?
Speaker:That is something someone would buy because it doesn't work like
Speaker:real flowers.
Speaker:We glue it in and we use wire.
Speaker:It's all constructed.
Speaker:And three,
Speaker:most importantly,
Speaker:can I ship it from my office to the front lobby
Speaker:of the St Regis hotel without any incidents.
Speaker:And this is critical because every single detail matters when you're
Speaker:serving a luxury business and you can't just promise quality,
Speaker:you have to exceed and out,
Speaker:execute on a quality.
Speaker:So we did drop test shipping with federal express.
Speaker:The FedEx guys were sitting in my kitchen table,
Speaker:like, who is this person?
Speaker:And why are we here?
Speaker:This must not be a real business.
Speaker:I said,
Speaker:please trust me.
Speaker:And please work with me because I want to work with
Speaker:leading suppliers.
Speaker:And they did.
Speaker:And so they dropped tests,
Speaker:shifted from Memphis and do the shake,
Speaker:the gorilla and do everything that they do to a package
Speaker:to make sure that it works.
Speaker:And I would say 98% of the time we get it
Speaker:to the front door without any issues back to the question
Speaker:is I decided what proof of concept would be for actually
Speaker:the concept.
Speaker:The final aspect of proof of concept is,
Speaker:is it a viable business?
Speaker:So yeah,
Speaker:I made the rosary arrangement.
Speaker:I know what my margins are on the product,
Speaker:but is there a,
Speaker:there, there is what you're trying to invent marketable.
Speaker:And does someone want to pay what you would like to
Speaker:sell the product for?
Speaker:This is key because a lot of people have ideas and
Speaker:they can't execute them,
Speaker:or a lot of people can execute,
Speaker:but they don't make money on it.
Speaker:It's the combination and the gestalt of everything to get to
Speaker:proof of concept.
Speaker:So we definitely have proof of concept with credit worthy customers
Speaker:and super luxurious brands that say yes to Luxe bloom.
Speaker:So did you go and present the idea to people first
Speaker:just to see,
Speaker:or how did you get to the point,
Speaker:not the product portion,
Speaker:but that people would actually purchase it.
Speaker:What type of steps did you take to make sure and
Speaker:to ensure proof of concept for Luxe bloom?
Speaker:First, I had to get my import brokers license to conduct
Speaker:my first import from a foreign country.
Speaker:You have to get cleared through Homeland security and a lot
Speaker:of events to be a broker.
Speaker:A lot of people may say,
Speaker:Oh yeah,
Speaker:get your license.
Speaker:You can,
Speaker:it just takes a little bit of time.
Speaker:And then working out the details with cargo and logistics.
Speaker:So we got our first import and I decided to make
Speaker:so samples at my cross fly to New York and attended
Speaker:meeting called the luxury marketing meeting,
Speaker:which isn't really a marketing group.
Speaker:It's just a group of luxury brands in New York.
Speaker:And I had asked the man that runs the group,
Speaker:if I could give some samples of my product to some
Speaker:people to try.
Speaker:And so I made some samples with a little brochure and
Speaker:I had given it to people like 20 people.
Speaker:And one of them was the person at the Waldorf Astoria.
Speaker:And essentially she took it.
Speaker:And the next day I was still in New York.
Speaker:And I see on my cell phone,
Speaker:the number of the Waldorf,
Speaker:the story it comes up and she explains who she is.
Speaker:And she says,
Speaker:I have to say,
Speaker:I just took your Rose apart.
Speaker:I got a sample at this party last night,
Speaker:I took it apart,
Speaker:is this real?
Speaker:And I said,
Speaker:it is.
Speaker:And she said,
Speaker:well, where's the water?
Speaker:And I explained the process.
Speaker:And she said,
Speaker:well, do you mind coming over?
Speaker:Because our floral budget is literally crushing my operating P and
Speaker:L, but we have to have flowers.
Speaker:So I came over and this is where the fake it
Speaker:till you make it comes through.
Speaker:She took me on a tour and kept asking me,
Speaker:can you make this,
Speaker:can you make this,
Speaker:can you make this?
Speaker:And I said,
Speaker:well, I know I can make these things.
Speaker:I can try to make these things.
Speaker:And she said,
Speaker:well, I'll give you a chance.
Speaker:And if it works and you do save me money,
Speaker:I will convert the buy from the super fancy florist in
Speaker:New York city to you.
Speaker:We did it.
Speaker:I literally was on the floor in the tanning salon,
Speaker:gluing the roses into the base.
Speaker:Cause I didn't know how to ship it yet.
Speaker:And we did the installation and it's three years and we've
Speaker:never looked back.
Speaker:She was my first client.
Speaker:She believed in me.
Speaker:I knew that I would do whatever it took to execute
Speaker:this to the last detail,
Speaker:including if something happened,
Speaker:I would fly back and fix it,
Speaker:which a local Flores could have just come over.
Speaker:And according to her,
Speaker:we are saving 56% of her operating costs on floral without
Speaker:compromising beauty in one of the most luxurious hotels in the
Speaker:country. Wow.
Speaker:And I wouldn't even say without compromising beauty,
Speaker:I would say enhanced beauty because the,
Speaker:and the style of the roses,
Speaker:they all look perfect and the colors pop.
Speaker:So I get shivers when I listened to that story,
Speaker:challis, that is Awesome.
Speaker:So proof of concept,
Speaker:you guys,
Speaker:this was a perfect demonstration.
Speaker:When you listen to what Shelly was saying,
Speaker:she has the end result she has to get to,
Speaker:and then she backed it up step by step.
Speaker:She identified what she needed to do.
Speaker:She listed the different steps she had to take.
Speaker:Then she was testing.
Speaker:Then she revised to make sure that the product was right.
Speaker:So that was all on product production side.
Speaker:Then she had to make sure there was a market for
Speaker:it. And what did she do?
Speaker:She got herself in front of people,
Speaker:provided product,
Speaker:gave them the experience and you landed a big one right
Speaker:from the start.
Speaker:And you haven't looked back.
Speaker:That's right.
Speaker:Give us another time.
Speaker:This all sounds beautiful.
Speaker:The story's great.
Speaker:You have presented us with some challenges.
Speaker:Is there another roadblock,
Speaker:a really big barrier that came right in front of you
Speaker:that you just weren't sure you were going to be able
Speaker:to overcome.
Speaker:There's two big barriers to the growth of my company.
Speaker:One is securing capital and the other is human capital and
Speaker:great talent and labor that can do what we do and
Speaker:has our work ethic and standards and quality.
Speaker:So the first with regard to capital naively,
Speaker:I thought that I would be able to drive enough sales
Speaker:myself, to operate the company.
Speaker:But as you know,
Speaker:when you move out of your basement,
Speaker:now you pay rent insurance,
Speaker:all sorts of extra costs.
Speaker:You have a monthly burn rate while we've kept the burn
Speaker:rate, low of the operating costs of the company.
Speaker:We still need to capitalize the company by hiring more great
Speaker:people. And I have to say many have tried,
Speaker:and nobody has really been able to sell the Luxe bloom
Speaker:promise, which is a barrier to my growth.
Speaker:So those two things could impede me getting to be a
Speaker:really big company.
Speaker:We compete for capital all the time.
Speaker:We are in what we call the shark tank pitches in
Speaker:Chicago. We're big in the venture community.
Speaker:These pitches work like shark tank.
Speaker:You go in,
Speaker:you get 10 minutes to talk about your value proposition,
Speaker:your finances,
Speaker:there's investors in the room at the end,
Speaker:they say yes or no,
Speaker:and we've done hundreds of them,
Speaker:but we're competing in Chicago for capital in technology.
Speaker:And right now technology and healthcare investors are more interested in
Speaker:those kinds of businesses that what I'd call a product-based cost
Speaker:of goods business.
Speaker:But yet,
Speaker:I mean,
Speaker:continue to try in terms of hiring people.
Speaker:I have to say,
Speaker:we use many sources on the internet.
Speaker:I was just on the phone with a recruiter.
Speaker:I think in the early years of my life,
Speaker:you had a job and you had to do that job.
Speaker:And if you stepped in someone else's sandbox,
Speaker:you'd be in trouble in the entrepreneur world.
Speaker:Many of you know,
Speaker:you have to do many jobs,
Speaker:sort of hub and spoke.
Speaker:So we look for people that have one outstanding skill,
Speaker:but have the ability to possibly do other things.
Speaker:Because an entrepreneur business cannot afford to hire one to do
Speaker:each job.
Speaker:This is one the barrier girls,
Speaker:but we continue to believe that if we become a brand
Speaker:to watch that people will want to join our company and
Speaker:want to be part of something that is really innovative and
Speaker:solving some problems.
Speaker:Wonderful. I love the point where you're talking about in terms
Speaker:of hiring,
Speaker:you're hiring for one really huge strength,
Speaker:but then the ability to take on other tasks as well.
Speaker:That's great insight,
Speaker:something for all of us to think about and remember for
Speaker:our businesses moving on.
Speaker:I know you've recently been on QVC,
Speaker:what types of things,
Speaker:and maybe it is that,
Speaker:but what types of things do you find move the needle
Speaker:the most for you?
Speaker:There's two aspects of our business,
Speaker:B2B business to business and B to C business to the
Speaker:consumer. We've held off on the consumer aspect because consumers,
Speaker:when it comes to flowers,
Speaker:have very specific requests and a consumer is buying one flower
Speaker:arrangement and a business is buying cases and cases and cases
Speaker:of flowers.
Speaker:So our focus has been on businesses,
Speaker:but we are in pilots for the consumer in terms of
Speaker:things that have made a difference for us in terms of
Speaker:sales, we had been pitching Saks fifth Avenue of New York
Speaker:city because they have beautiful window displays.
Speaker:And we always thought,
Speaker:well, maybe we could just sell them Rose heads.
Speaker:And they could do something on their own after months and
Speaker:months and months of pitching.
Speaker:I mean,
Speaker:months, the sex with Avenue team wrote us a letter in
Speaker:December of 2014 and said,
Speaker:I'm sorry.
Speaker:We really like your product,
Speaker:but we're going in another direction.
Speaker:But keep in touch with us.
Speaker:Christmas comes and goes.
Speaker:And whatever idea they wanted to do was not able to
Speaker:be executed.
Speaker:So at the last minute they called us back a month
Speaker:later and said,
Speaker:we'd like to award you the entire Saks fifth Avenue assignment.
Speaker:It's a hundred thousand roses in 33 windows on fifth Avenue,
Speaker:49th and 50th.
Speaker:And after I fell off my chair,
Speaker:what, what month was that?
Speaker:That was January,
Speaker:2015. And the windows had to be up the last week
Speaker:of April.
Speaker:Now, remember I have a product from God,
Speaker:God grows the roses.
Speaker:This is not made in a factory in China.
Speaker:So my first call was to the farmer and I explained
Speaker:the situation and really worked hard on a partnership to say,
Speaker:we must supply this assignment and not only supply it,
Speaker:but Sachs asked us to make it.
Speaker:So we worked with Chanel,
Speaker:Dior, Tom Ford,
Speaker:all the leading brands on their designs.
Speaker:And we literally glued in all the windows,
Speaker:have sex with Ave.
Speaker:And we did it in 11 days,
Speaker:tirelessly from 5:00 AM to midnight gluing in the roses and
Speaker:making the designs.
Speaker:If you go to Luxe balloon.com
Speaker:under the gallery section,
Speaker:you'll be able to see what we did in this show,
Speaker:stopping window,
Speaker:after window display.
Speaker:And this particular promotion got attention from NBC today's show,
Speaker:which is across the street from Sachs.
Speaker:Many people had called going,
Speaker:Oh my God,
Speaker:how did you make a wedding dress out of roses?
Speaker:You have to see it to believe it.
Speaker:So it changed us from being,
Speaker:yes, we can do it to being on the stage of
Speaker:flawless execution for one of the most leading luxurious brands in
Speaker:the country.
Speaker:And that made a real difference from our B2B business.
Speaker:Finally, at QVC,
Speaker:the QVC scout was watching the today show and sauce and
Speaker:thought, Oh my God,
Speaker:these roses are so colorful.
Speaker:The lady at home is going to want to have these
Speaker:colors. QVC,
Speaker:viewers love things that have colors products with colors and after
Speaker:much vetting and many meetings,
Speaker:this world-class company called QVC.
Speaker:We had gone to see if we could even do it.
Speaker:I didn't know how to do it,
Speaker:fake it till you make it and went down there.
Speaker:And it's a very long story.
Speaker:It's a story in and of itself,
Speaker:but we were on air April 5th and I'm back on
Speaker:air this week,
Speaker:May 17th with a special collection,
Speaker:we call the teacup collection designed exclusively for the lady at
Speaker:QVC. So we now have two really big case.
Speaker:History is B2B and B to C and a lot of
Speaker:learning ahead of us to decide what is the right direction
Speaker:to go forward.
Speaker:And possibly both impossibly both with enough capital to hire the
Speaker:right people,
Speaker:to do it Right.
Speaker:Well, I encourage all of you.
Speaker:You've got to go online and see those pictures.
Speaker:I remember when that was happening,
Speaker:Shelly, because everyone in high school was like,
Speaker:Oh my gosh,
Speaker:you see these windows,
Speaker:you know,
Speaker:our whole high school,
Speaker:Facebook page is like Charlotte.
Speaker:Yeah, you've got to see it.
Speaker:You guys,
Speaker:you just,
Speaker:you don't understand it until you actually see it.
Speaker:I was saying that at the top of the show,
Speaker:all right,
Speaker:Shelly, we're going to move now into our reflection section.
Speaker:This is a look at you.
Speaker:And what has made you successful along the way over and
Speaker:above even everything that you've already talked to us about,
Speaker:what natural trait do you have that you continually call upon
Speaker:so that you are successful Is one thing.
Speaker:And it's kind of related to the quote,
Speaker:but it is what I call belligerent.
Speaker:Perseverance being perseverant is one thing,
Speaker:but being belligerent,
Speaker:not to others,
Speaker:but about yourself.
Speaker:And your goal is sort of the only way that you
Speaker:can make things happen.
Speaker:It's a very competitive world.
Speaker:And right now the economy,
Speaker:you know,
Speaker:the workforce has changed.
Speaker:The internet has changed things in an order to achieve your
Speaker:dream. You have to pursue with a rigor and a belligerence
Speaker:that can get you to that end zone that can get
Speaker:you through break you through the clutter.
Speaker:And I liken that to combining belligerent perseverance with making sure
Speaker:that you're delivering quality experiences for the price.
Speaker:The customer pays going over the top and delivering that with
Speaker:attention to what if you were the customer I'm right now
Speaker:in the middle of emailing a customer and we just want
Speaker:a cruise ship and they're trying to find the order because
Speaker:the ship is sailing.
Speaker:So I'm looking at my screen thinking,
Speaker:Oh my God,
Speaker:the FedEx guy got there on time and the boat's leaving
Speaker:and they can't find the package.
Speaker:I have to make sure that I am obsessed with the
Speaker:last mile every day on every detail.
Speaker:So that carries into my business.
Speaker:Got it.
Speaker:Well, good luck with that.
Speaker:But that's what has made you successful,
Speaker:first of all,
Speaker:in the development of the product,
Speaker:like we were talking about your listing,
Speaker:everything that needs to be done every step along the way,
Speaker:I'm quite sure you have all of those processes and systems
Speaker:throughout your whole organization,
Speaker:just to make sure that everything is checked off and done
Speaker:to the utmost gold standard level.
Speaker:That's possible along those lines,
Speaker:what type of tool,
Speaker:if there was one thing that you use regularly,
Speaker:almost every single day that you would share as your most
Speaker:valuable tool in business,
Speaker:what would it be?
Speaker:I'm so glad you asked this because I just was talking
Speaker:to someone about it.
Speaker:I use a piece of paper,
Speaker:literally with lines on it and a pencil.
Speaker:And every night before I leave the office or go to,
Speaker:I make the to-do list for the next day.
Speaker:And the master to do was I tried to everything.
Speaker:I tried final faxes notes and outlook computer programs.
Speaker:It doesn't work.
Speaker:I literally focus on a and B priorities.
Speaker:I always eat the broccoli on the plate.
Speaker:First. I do the worst thing that I have to do.
Speaker:First. I get to work very early.
Speaker:I don't wait till seven o'clock to start working on the
Speaker:finances assistance.
Speaker:That's not a good idea.
Speaker:So eat the broccoli on the plate first.
Speaker:And I obsess about the to-do list.
Speaker:Not because I like to cross things off,
Speaker:but I can't be belligerently perseverance to move these rocks every
Speaker:day, unless I'm moving the business.
Speaker:So it's simple,
Speaker:it's fear free.
Speaker:You can get a pad of paper at office Depot.
Speaker:And I stick to the list because I know every day
Speaker:I'm going to be interrupted for sure in an operating business.
Speaker:But if I don't have the list and I don't really
Speaker:know what I have to achieve Super simple,
Speaker:everybody can do it.
Speaker:It's the pencil and paper.
Speaker:And I know you didn't say pen,
Speaker:you said pencil,
Speaker:pencil. It's the pencil and paper,
Speaker:but it's what you do with those.
Speaker:And I love that.
Speaker:Shelley, you eat the broccoli on the plate first.
Speaker:I'm stealing it.
Speaker:I'm using it.
Speaker:Okay. All right.
Speaker:And in terms of books,
Speaker:have you listened or read any books lately that you would
Speaker:like to share with our audience?
Speaker:Sadly, not even close.
Speaker:I work about 15 to 17 hour days,
Speaker:so there's no books,
Speaker:but I am on my way to Japan on Saturday.
Speaker:And it's a 22 hour flight.
Speaker:So I'm hoping to find something to read.
Speaker:And if any of your listeners have any ideas of something
Speaker:that would be inspiring,
Speaker:I'm open.
Speaker:I will send you over an email with a number of
Speaker:books that I think are fabulous.
Speaker:How about that?
Speaker:Great. Thank you,
Speaker:sir. You're welcome.
Speaker:And give biz listeners,
Speaker:as you know,
Speaker:on all of our show notes pages,
Speaker:we always recommend all of the books that our guests suggest.
Speaker:And just as you're listening to the podcast today,
Speaker:you can also listen to audio books while you're walking your
Speaker:dog, doing laundry,
Speaker:whatever it might be.
Speaker:I've teamed up with audible and you can get a free
Speaker:audio. Just go to gift biz,
Speaker:book.com and make a selection.
Speaker:And an audio book is on me.
Speaker:How about that?
Speaker:Even for you,
Speaker:Shelly. Wow.
Speaker:Thank you.
Speaker:All right.
Speaker:Now I would like to invite you to dare to dream.
Speaker:I'd like to present you with a virtual gift.
Speaker:It's a magical box containing unlimited possibilities for your future.
Speaker:So this would be your dream or your goal of almost
Speaker:unreachable Heights that you would wish to obtain.
Speaker:Please accept this gift from all of us and open it
Speaker:in our presence.
Speaker:What is inside your box?
Speaker:Okay. I love this question.
Speaker:Oh my God.
Speaker:It's like a fairy godmother.
Speaker:The first is investment capital.
Speaker:I need to capitalize this company to grow.
Speaker:So the gift would be a really wonderful investor who believes
Speaker:in Luxe bloom and the promise that we're delivering and wants
Speaker:to be an angel and helping us make our vision a
Speaker:reality on a broader scale.
Speaker:The second would be I talk a lot about luck because
Speaker:I don't believe in luck.
Speaker:The way that I think people get lucky is by planting
Speaker:seeds. Thousands of seeds.
Speaker:I tell the story a lot is if you read anything
Speaker:about how a bamboo forest,
Speaker:where I was in Asia,
Speaker:you have to plant the seeds in year one,
Speaker:nothing happens year two,
Speaker:nothing happened.
Speaker:I mean,
Speaker:nothing, not a bud,
Speaker:nothing. And then one day overnight in 48 hours,
Speaker:an entire bamboo forest appears out of nowhere.
Speaker:It's a miracle.
Speaker:Actually. I've been planning bamboo seeds now for three years and
Speaker:I am seeking to create our bamboo forest with qualified leads,
Speaker:wonderfully happy clients and happy consumers.
Speaker:So I think the second thing in the box would be
Speaker:seeds to plant more bamboo for us for lots of will.
Speaker:There you go.
Speaker:And I think what you're talking about with the bamboo seeds
Speaker:is so powerful because as entrepreneurs you go places,
Speaker:you never know what seed you drop along the way is
Speaker:going to be the one that's just going to blow everything
Speaker:out of the water.
Speaker:So that's a great analogy as well,
Speaker:for sure.
Speaker:All right.
Speaker:Give biz listeners go over to the show notes page.
Speaker:I'm going to have all of Shelly's social media sites,
Speaker:the website.
Speaker:I want you guys to go and take a look at
Speaker:this product.
Speaker:It is unbelievable.
Speaker:I've said that a million times,
Speaker:but that's because I don't lie to you.
Speaker:It is.
Speaker:And we're going to continue watching you Shelly,
Speaker:on your journey and what happens.
Speaker:And there is no question in my mind that those bamboo
Speaker:seeds, all of a sudden are going to be turning into
Speaker:this wild,
Speaker:big floral forest.
Speaker:In your case,
Speaker:on behalf of all our listeners,
Speaker:we wish you all the best,
Speaker:good luck travel safely to Japan this weekend.
Speaker:And we will definitely be following you,
Speaker:go onto QVC.
Speaker:Next time when she's doing the teacup roses,
Speaker:we all need to get our own,
Speaker:of course.
Speaker:And may your candle.
Speaker:Shelly always burned bright.
Speaker:Sue. It's been a pleasure.
Speaker:Thank you so much and good.
Speaker:Everybody Keeps supporting Each other and all good things will happen.
Speaker:Learn how to work smarter while developing and growing your business.
Speaker:Download our guide called twenty-five free tools to enhance your business
Speaker:and life.
Speaker:It's our gift to you and available at gift biz,
Speaker:unwrap.com/tools. Thanks for listening and be sure to join us for
Speaker:the next episode.
Speaker:Today's show is sponsored by the ribbon print company,
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