Creating Something That Lasts with Christina Stembel of Farmgirl Flowers: Ep 34
Highlights from the episode:
How growing up on a farm shaped Christina’s work ethic
How bootstrapping encouraged smarter creativity
What investor rejection taught Christina about ownership
Why women drive the flower economy
Choosing sustainability over speed
Podcast show notes:
From the outside, Farmgirl Flowers looks like an overnight success. Beautiful arrangements, a recognizable brand, and a company that’s lasted 15 years. But as Christina Stembel shares in this conversation, the reality was far slower, and far harder, than most people realize.
Christina shares what no one talks about when you build a company without investors, without a pedigree, and without a backup plan. From growing up on a farm in Indiana to teaching herself how to design flowers she’d want to receive, her journey is rooted in grit and creativity.
We also talk about creativity born from constraints, how women buying flowers for other women reshaped Christina’s business, and what it means to build something sustainably instead of chasing fast growth. This is a conversation about patience, resilience, and redefining success on your own terms, especially when the timeline doesn’t go the way you planned.
What You’ll Hear:
Why flowers became a business problem to solve (06:55)
Bootstrapping without investors or a safety net (15:17)
The reality of perishable margins and slow growth (29:24)
When quitting felt logical (34:59)
Redefining success on her own terms (46:07)
If you’ve ever built something quietly, questioned how long it was taking, or wondered if it would all be worth it, Christina’s story isn’t just inspiring; it’s validating. Christina’s story is exactly why Things No One Tells You exists, to share the parts of success that don’t make the highlight reel. If you enjoyed this episode, be sure to subscribe, rate, and review Things No One Tells You wherever you listen.
Check out more from Christina Stembel
Discover Christina’s website: https://farmgirlflowers.com
Follow Farmgirl Flowers on instagram: https://www.instagram.com/farmgirlflowers
And follow Christina on instagram: https://www.instagram.com/christinastembel
Be sure to subscribe to Things No One Tells You—Lindsay’s podcast all about the real, unfiltered conversations we don’t always have but should. From big names to everyday voices, each episode dives into the moments that shape us. Listen wherever you get your podcasts!
Follow along with Lindsay below!
Full Transcript
[00:00:00] Christina: Something really special about getting to start a company is that there's no red tape. You just try it, and if it works, you keep going, and if it doesn't work, you stop really quickly before you lose your shirt, and then move on to the next thing. Yeah. But no one told me that the stress that would come from, like worrying about running out of money and how to build a good company, things like that, are much more stressful than actually having to work 36 hours straight.
[00:00:25] You know, having to really figure out. You know, why are you doing this? How are you doing it? We're a very different company from the one I started to build and the one that I wanted to build, even. And that's okay.
[00:00:37] Lindsay: Oh, the woman you just heard from, Christina Stembel, has brought so much joy to my life in the form of flowers.
[00:00:44] I cannot wait for you guys to hear more from Christina and this week's episode of Things No One Tells You. first I wanna just real quick set the table because I am in the midst of Winter Olympics coverage, which I just wanna take a minute to say that one of the coolest things about covering the Olympics.
[00:01:03] You know, I feel super grateful to even have that opportunity, but it's like, it's a lot of work. yYou'reworking often with people that you haven't worked with before, so there's always like, okay, you've gotta just kind of bring the best version of yourself, but also to be immersed in these storylines like.
[00:01:21] All in for 17 straight days where it's these storylines of like triumph, heartbreak, adversity, you know, and I'm talking about like Lindsay Vaughn, all the figure skating, winning gold, like everything, it is like this emotional rollercoaster in the best way possible. And it really gives me a lens into humanity, which sounds really weird, but it's true.
[00:01:47] And I just feel like. I hope everyone takes the time to watch some of the Olympics because it is like this lesson in just being good people and character and what it takes, and even if you're not an athlete, it's like these are all the same, very relatable things. So I'm saying this because. I'm really grateful for that, like a spotlight to see that.
[00:02:09] And the guest that I'm introducing you to this week, Christina Stembel she is the founder of Farm Girl Flowers, and I can't wait for you to hear what she says. The thing is that no one's told her on her journey, I think it is. You know, it's something that might not be surprising, but it's definitely helpful, and her business is.
[00:02:32] Bootstrapped, she's done it all, of it on her own. And I caught wind of it because my husband brought home this box of Farm Girl flowers from the Today Show because she was on the show, and these flowers were like nothing I had seen. They're absolutely amazing and artistic and wrapped in burlap and just, anyway.
[00:02:54] I was like, this is really different. This is really awesome. They're gorgeous. And I sort of wanted to know more because there was such a specific style. But the thing that Christina mentioned during the interview, which is not spoiling it, is what it has meant to her and how it has sort of changed her. To get a glimpse of that human kindness, and I've never thought about this, but she gets to see all of those notes and letters of people who choose to send flowers.
[00:03:21] And I just thought, can you imagine if you were able to see that every day? And you were looking at people's notes of kindness and love? And anyway, it just really touched me in a way that I thought was really cool. So. I'm just gonna get right to it. I love this girl. I love her vibe. I love the story behind her business.
[00:03:38] I hope you learned something from it. Here is Christina. Stan. Christina, I can't thank you enough for joining us here. I am so excited to hear all about the business, all about, you know, how you do it all, and the team that you guys have working with you together. Where are you joining us from?
[00:03:54] Christina: Thanks, Lindsay.
[00:03:54] I'm excited to be here. I'm here fromWashington State, up near Seattle, a little town called Gig Harbor on the water here.
[00:04:01] Lindsay: And what are you doing up there? Is that where you said that you're in the midst of creating a farm?
[00:04:06] Christina: Yes. Yes. So I moved from California, during COVID, during kind of the great exodus of many states that a lot of people did.
[00:04:14] I was one of those people. I came up to Washington State, California was just a little, it was tough to do business in, especially as a bootstrapped company of a perishable product that doesn't have really big software margins. so I, it wasMore of a business decision than a life decision for me.
[00:04:29] but that kind of goes hand in hand with when you have a company. So yeah, I came up in 2021, bought a small farm here. We're starting to just kind of dabble in growing some of our own flowers as well. but just nice to have kind of an actual farm for farm girl flowers for the first time.
[00:04:47] Lindsay: Farm girl flowers is you have, so, and I know you know this, but you have just created such the art of turning into
[00:04:56] receiving flowers, like just an experience, you know, when you step back and think, okay, farm girl flowers celebrating 15 years, what goes through your mind?
[00:05:07] Christina: Yeah. 15 years. Like, wow. like certain pictures just go, in my mind when I think of that, of, you know, starting it in my dining room and not knowing if it was gonna make it, and then trying to pitch over a hundred times to investors and getting so many nos and crying in my car so many times, and, you know, so many, you know.
[00:05:25] Working 30 hours straight without any sleep and falling asleep at stoplights, which is really dangerous, and I don't recommend it to people just 'cause you're so tired delivering flowers at 11 o'clock at night on a Valentine's Day, and you know, just so many things. And then also just people, I just have so many like thoughts of all the people along the way that have helped me build this into what it is.
[00:05:47] And just so much gratitude, especially our customers, you know, our team and our customers just kind of blow me away. By how dedicated and loyal they are. You know, even when we faced really hard times, there have been so many times that I've thought that I don't know if we're gonna make it another month, and we pull through.
[00:06:04] And it's because of our loyal customers. You know, we do that. And our team that works so hard to do it.
[00:06:11] Lindsay: I spent a lot of time also watching some of your segments on the Today Show, and there's one where you created a beautiful tablescape with citrus and I think that what I've realized is I love, certain specific colors with flowers, as I'm sure everyone does, but I just, I love the way that they make me feel when it's a really curated, specific kind of design, but it doesn't feel really over the top.
[00:06:34] It feels very organic. What do flowers mean to you? I know that sounds like a weird question, but before I get into, like, really how this all started, I just Yep, Obviously this is a gift that you were given.
[00:06:48] Christina: Thank you, Lindsay. I like that nobody's ever asked me that question before, and I've been interviewed a lot, so that's a great question.
[00:06:54] Lindsay: Thank you.
[00:06:55] Christina: You know, flowers mean different things to me now than they did when I started out. You know, when I started Farm Girl, I started it because I wanted to start a company and I knew it would be something creative because of my skill in life. Making things beautiful, and I didn't want that to be my skill.
[00:07:10] I wish I could have cured cancer or, you know, something much, you know, greater than just making things pretty. But you know, when I started Farmwell, I didn't actually see a whole lot of value in flowers because I didn't like what I was receiving. You know, I didn't like what I would send as a sender. I didn't like what I would receive as a recipient.
[00:07:28] And so to me it was just like. You know, can't we do this better? You know, it was more like a business, like, let me solve this problem. But what it's changed into along the way for me is seeing the love behind the flowers, especially as I like. Things get really heavy in life. You know, seeing how many, you know, how much love is sent through flower arrangements and seeing what the cards say and seeing how many, it's usually women.
[00:07:52] That really surprised me when I started from where I thought it was gonna be, men buying flowers, but 92% of people that buy flowers are women buying for women
[00:07:59] Lindsay: For real. Like that's a real stat.
[00:08:01] Christina: Real stat. And if you take Valentine's Day out of it, it's probably really close to a hundred percent of the time because that's the day they all buy for.
[00:08:09] Yeah. Men don't buy. I think your husband, Craig, might be an anomaly in how much you get flowers, by the way. So, which I love by the way, so much.
[00:08:19] Lindsay: That's hilarious.
[00:08:21] Christina: But usually it's women, and I think that's because women know how it feels to receive them. And so that's why they want all of their loved ones around them.
[00:08:28] They're. Excuse me, their sisters, their moms, their friends, to feel that same love. And so now, flowers mean love to me and mean care and consideration, and so many things that I think we need more of in the world right now.
[00:08:41] Lindsay: Wow. Do you have specific flowers that you love more than others? Of course, like favorites.
[00:08:47] Christina: Yeah, absolutely.
[00:08:49] Lindsay: When are they?
[00:08:49] Christina: Kind of, they change seasonally, and they also change when I get tired of one because we use it too much or something. And I hate to be really cliché, but peonies are still my absolute favorite. Even though they're everybody's favorite, you know, flour, they're very fleeting.
[00:09:04] You know, they usually, the season for, you know, we're. Trying globally to get them year-round. So people are trying to grow them in all different places now. We're growing some; we just put in almost 40,000 plants ourselves as well. So, so, you know, we're trying, so we're excited about that.
[00:09:19] But, you know, the season for when you're harvesting them is very short. It's usually a few weeks long, at most six weeks long. So it’s a very fleeting season, which I think makes 'em more special, because you can't get them all the time. The other flower I love is the Garden Rose. It's very traditional.
[00:09:37] It smells wonderful. They don't have a very long base life, so they're hard to use as well. So we use a lot of garden roses, but true garden roses. Have a vase life of only a couple of days, and so customers would get upset. So I kind of like them even more because I can't use them a little bit. But then there are some flowers that I just don't love.
[00:09:56] This was a good business message or lesson for me because I'm really not a fan of Gerber daisies or sunflowers personally.
[00:10:04] Lindsay: Oh, interesting. Okay.
[00:10:05] Christina: Yeah, some people love them. I find you're either in the love or hate category with them. Yeah, and I don't love them. And so we didn't have a Gerber daisy bouquet on our site for 10 years, for the first 10 years, because I just didn't like them.
[00:10:17] So I'm like, I'm not using 'em. If I don't like 'em, I don't wanna design with them.
[00:10:21] And then, yeah, and then we had a grower with COVID that was throwing away. You know, hundreds of thousands of dollars of Gerber daisies. So we put a Gerber daisy bouquet up on our site, and it became one of our most popular bouquets.
[00:10:33] And so I'm like, well, I was a dummy there, not giving our customers what they wanted. So now we've always had a Gerber daisy bouquet up since.
[00:10:40] Lindsay: That is so funny. You know what's interesting is I've realized this about myself, and this is gonna sound like a weird story, but ever since I was a kid, my mom.
[00:10:49] Has not liked carnations, and I don't know, you know how you just pay attention to things that fall into your brain that your parents have told you along the way. So every time I order an arrangement for a friend, I always feel compelled to say, just no carnations. Like, do you know what I mean? And I'm like, I don't even know where this just came from.
[00:11:08] Like, I am using her as a measuring stick as I did for a lot of things. Do you know what I mean?
[00:11:12] Christina: Absolutely. It's the most common carnation. They're the Oldsmobile. They were like every mother; they were overused. They were like, your dad's car, that's your mom's flower kind of thing, you know?
[00:11:22] Lindsay: Yeah. So I was excited to ask you about that because I was wondering why I, why she has such an aversion to them, and therefore, me and I get that's exactly it, right?
[00:11:31] Like they were just so common back in the, is that right?
[00:11:34] Christina: Yeah. They were so common. They were in every grocery store, and they're also in. You know, it used to be in very primary colors, often dyed to be an unnatural color. So it just felt a little startling. Even like this crayola box color that would not be in a natural form is in a natural form.
[00:11:50] Right, right. So everybody, I would say it's the most hated flower we've tried.
[00:11:55] Lindsay: That's hilarious.
[00:11:56] Christina: So many times to try to bring 'em back because there are all these new varieties that are beautiful and
[00:12:00] Lindsay: Really.
[00:12:01] Christina: Yeah, we call 'em the workhorse flower too, because you, a carnation, can stay alive. Like if you keep it in, like not in hot, like in a window with sun and you, you know, just change the water every day.
[00:12:11] It can last, you know, a month easily. They're the only flowers that can last. Like a month outside of a cooler. So, we call 'em the workforce flower, trying to bring 'em back because they just have such staying power, and they're beautiful, and they actually have a scent still, which so few flowers do, but people aren't ready for the Olds mobile to come back yet.
[00:12:30] Lindsay: How does that new variety look? What feels different about it? What makes you safe?
[00:12:34] Christina: The colors. Yeah. The colors are just, I mean, there's one that looks just like a David Austin Gold, garden rose to me, and it's. A carnation will cost you 50 cents. You know, a wholesale Yeah. Like the big old, you know, between 30 and 50 cents, and a garden rose will cost you $2 wholesale.
[00:12:54] So the difference in price as well is just huge. I mean, it is just, you can get so much more for your money with the carnations, and the last, a lot longer than the guard rails will last three days, and the carnation will last three weeks. Okay. People don't love 'em. So I think maybe another 10 years have to pass, and then maybe we could try again.
[00:13:11] Lindsay: Okay. So you, as a kid, were a girl who grew up on a farm in Indiana. Mm-hmm. Correct. Can you tell me about that and what that life was like?
[00:13:19] Christina: Yeah. I grew up on a corn and soybean farm. My dad only farmed it for a couple of years and then found that you have to have a lot of land for commodity crops.
[00:13:27] You can't have just a couple hundred acres as we had, so we rented it out to our neighbor, farmed it for us. But you know, I grew up on, you know, I don't know, 200 and some acres and, you know, big barns and outbuildings and very far from town, which I thought was horrible at the time because everybody else was, you know, going to the community pool and the parks and.
[00:13:49] Tennis lessons in the summer, and we were outside doing chores. And now I think it's the best thing that could have ever happened to me because we, I learned how to work really hard. And if I didn't have that work ethic, there's no way Farm World would still be here without it. So I count a lot for that.
[00:14:05] Lindsay: Yeah. What were your, I mean,
[00:14:07] Christina: You know, now I hear people, you know, I have two stepchildren, so I'm always reading, you know, co-parenting and parenting books and step, you know, how to be a good stepparent. And I'm like, you know, you know, Grit by Angela Duckworth. I'm like, how can I make them grittier?
[00:14:21] And you know, like all that.
[00:14:22] Lindsay: That's hilarious.
[00:14:24] Christina: Yeah. And you know, the chores seem to be, you know, but the chores that they use are like making their bed. And so I'm like, no, that was not our chores. Ours was like. You know, go clean the barn or, you know, we're gonna burn the fence row today, or you're gonna mow the lane back to the pond, which is, you know, a half a mile long and on a tractor, you know?
[00:14:43] Lindsay: Yes.
[00:14:44] Christina: There were different types of chores, or my mom had so many gardens that you know, now I like working with flower farmers that are like, we have a flower farm, it's half an acre. And I'm like, we had probably an acre of gardens. It's called a garden, not a farm. I get a little catty that way. I'm like, that's not a, that's not a farm.
[00:15:00] Lindsay: Right. You're like, I know. Yeah. right. But so you grew up with that grit, and then, so you said that you were someone that you wish that you could have been, maybe a doctor or something different, but you found that your skill was making things beautiful. Tell me more about that.
[00:15:17] Christina: Yeah. I didn't go to college, so another thing with growing up on a farm was, you know, girls didn't, I mean, there wasn't a lot of investment put into girls'education.
[00:15:26] You know, we, I had one talk with my parents about it, and they were, you know, my mom was like, well. Girls go to college to find a husband. So we don't have that kind of money. And so it just wasn't, you know, it wasn't even discussed. And so, you know, I had to figure out like what I was gonna do. And I had big dreams.
[00:15:43] I wanted to be an actress. I moved to New York City two weeks after I graduated high school. I just had all of these. Big aspirations. but ithow I got here was very different than most trajectories to start a business. You know, I didn't come with a fancy pedigree or, you know, working at a lot of, you know, big, fancy companies first.
[00:16:02] I, you know, worked lots of odd jobs and then would just work my way up. But what I found was that I was very good at jobs that had a creative bent to them. So, you know, before starting Farmwell, I worked at Stanford University, which is. Very ironic since I didn't go to college. But, you know, I oversaw departments that did, you know, I started there in a catering department, okay.
[00:16:23] Did catering for the university. And when I went to the alumni relations department, which oversaw, you know, all the events. For each specific school. So we would do, I would do all the events for the law school and all the programs, and I really excelled at that. I was really good at that. When the economic downturn happened in 2008, you know, the provost's office called me in to talk about how I was able to do just as many events with half the budget.
[00:16:48] 'cause they didn't think it. Could be possible. And it was just because I was getting really creative. I'd make our own flour arrangements. I'd work out, you know, deals to get like wholesale and all of our wine. You know, I just think that scrappiness and that creativity came through. Yeah. And allowed me to do it really well.
[00:17:02] So I just, I always knew that was gonna be my. Something creative. You know, I, wanted to start a business and I would carry a notebook around with me everywhere and come up with like, probably had thousands of ideas of businesses, you know, one of, and I would turn every girl's night into a focus group where I'd be like, Hey Mona, margarita, what do you think of this company called Pockets?
[00:17:21] It's iron-on pockets for your suits. And I'd show 'em, I'd have like, you know, suit pocket, I'm like, you know, soup pocket. Like, try and take these home and try 'em. Yeah, I was like that guy with the question marks on his suit that you saw the infomercials for. So, yeah. But all of the ones that I would gravitate to were ones that had a creative spin to them.
[00:17:37] Lindsay: So the scrappiness, and I think that's a really interesting example, likan e example when you're trying to get wholesale wine. Like, does that mean that you would just show up onsite wherever you needed to meet someone and talk it out, negotiate it? How did, how were you do that scrappiness?
[00:17:52] Christina: Yeah, I mean, as an alum at Stanford, I would just look at our alumni and see, like, well, we have lots of alumni in wine.
[00:17:58] I could probably easily talk to them about it. So that's where I would start, you know, and then it was just, you know, I, you know, I got a kind of a poor performance review once, the only one in my entire life, and it was cross-departmental, one from the university at large. You know, it had given performance reviews to the, those.
[00:18:18] Positions at each school. And that person didn't know me really well, and I'd gotten rave, you know, rave performance reviews every other time. Every company I'm in, you know, the hardest worker will, you know, just get things done. And that one was negative because she said that I would just, the general consensus about me was that I would just forge ahead and not wait for anybody to catch up.
[00:18:41] And I was like. Well, thank you. Thank you very much. I thought that was like a big compliment. She's like, that wasn't a compliment. I was like, oh, you know, like I thought that was a great thing. So, you know, I think. It when you're working at a giant company there with all the red tape, it's hard when you're somebody who's very entrepreneurial like I am, you know, to that I'm just gonna like see that this is a problem and just go tackle that problem and get it done.
[00:19:05] Yeah, that's hard at big companies. And so that's. Something really special about getting to start a company is that there's no red tape. You just try it, and if it works, you keep going. And if it doesn't work, you stop really quickly before you lose your shirt and then move on to the next thing. Yeah. So yeah, I don't know if I think I went off on a tangent there. I'm sorry.
[00:19:23] Lindsay: No, I think that's really interesting, and I think also, what that makes me think about a little bit is sports, because. Really, what that person, think, was talking about in that review was probably the communication that they wanted. Right. Like, maybe, like maybe that's the difference 'cause Right.
[00:19:39] It's like someone can take care of it and do it. And that's a hard thing in any situation. 'cause you're right. It's like you see a path through, you see a way to do it. Yep. And you can get a ton, and I think sometimes, right, it's like mastering that art of communication amongst a sports team or wherever it is.
[00:19:56] Of course. Like that's something that I would love to dig in with you too, and about how you do that. And so, to get there, what was the seed that planted Farm Girl flowers? No pun intended.
[00:20:06] Christina: Yeah, I didn't. Yeah, it was actually, it was one of, you know, working at the university doing the events for the school.
[00:20:15] I would see how much the flower arrangements cost, which is why I started doing them myself, and saving a ton of money. And so. Anytime I would see a problem like that, I would business plan it out on the weekends because I was a dork like that, and I was just like, why do flowers cost so much? That's where it started.
[00:20:31] Like, why do they cost so much? Yeah, and I started with event flowers and very quickly switched to the e-commerce side because when I looked at how much revenue was generated in that entire industry of flowers, most of it was coming from e-commerce, and that side of the business was made up of four companies essentially making all of the money.
[00:20:49] Okay. $3 billion a year coming from four companies, you know, more than 3 billion. And I was like, wait. The other side, the event side, has so many, like hundreds of thousands of people on that side of the business, mostly women on that side. All men on the e-commerce side. That's ironic. also in kind of interesting to kinda dig into where the small, tiny businesses are run by women doing, you know, weddings and events from their garages mainly and calling themselves studio florists.
[00:21:16] And then, you know, these e-commerce giants were all white men, and yet women were the consumers of flowers. So it very much looked like beauty or fashion to me. And I was like, this is, you know, how it always is, it's like the female consumers are huge, and yet it's men telling them. What they want, and none of the women like what's without what they're getting.
[00:21:38] I'm looking at all their reviews and I'm like, this isn't working. You know, every time I would send my mom flowers, I'd have to use one of those companies because there wasn't a florist in this little tiny town in Indiana where I grew up. And I would spend an hour trying to sort through the least ugly options online.
[00:21:51] During my lunch hour. I would spend a hundred dollars when I thought it was gonna be $50, and I would try to send her an all-white bouquet, and then what was delivered to her was like dyed Kelly Green daisies. That's a true story, by the way.
[00:22:02] Lindsay: Wow.
[00:22:03] Christina: You know? And I was like, that's not what I ordered.
[00:22:05] These are ugly. These look like they were, you know, $10 at the grocery store and I spent a hundred dollars on them. So I looked at it as this is the first idea I had that checked all the boxes, and it was creative. So I knew I could do it, and I could do it well. It was something I could bootstrap because
[00:22:19] I lived in San Francisco at the time, that's where I started Farm Girl. And there was a really robust flower market at the time. And so I could buy small quantities at wholesale prices, which I couldn't have done if I were still in Indiana or somewhere that they don't have a flower market like that.
[00:22:35] and I knew I could bootstrap it. I had almost $50,000 at $49,000 saved up, which I thought was so much money back then. And so this was an idea where I knew I wasn't going to be able to get funding down from Sandhill Road with no. Pedigree. No. Education, nothing, and say, Hey, come, you know, give me a million dollars to start this company.
[00:22:54] So I started it with my $49,000, thinking I would raise capital later, but I was never able to. And I think that's also a huge blessing for us now.
[00:23:04] Lindsay: Oh, really? Why?
[00:23:06] Christina: Because honestly, I don't think we'd be here if we had funding. I think, you know, there's not a lot of profit in perishable products, and so people in our industry have to tout that they're actually technology or marketing companies that just happen to sell flowers because the multiples aren't great.
[00:23:22] You know, if I were an investor, I probably wouldn't wanna invest in flowers either. Took me a long time to get there because I was so mad that all of our counterparts that were owned by men were able to get, you know, a hundred million dollars and up on investments, and we were not able to.
[00:23:36] Lindsay: Yeah.
[00:23:36] Christina: So there's definitely that was involved in it, and nobody will ever convince me it's not part of it because, you know, we were doing really well and not able to even raise a million dollars.
[00:23:49] But now I get to make exactly the decision that's right for the company and I can look further down the road than like the next quarterly report. I don't have investors breathing down my neck telling me they need to, you know, get their investment out with a seven to 10 x return in a short amount of time.
[00:24:05] You know, I've never been able to buy a farm and grow flowers and things like that, that take a lot of capital, you know, ahead of time. You know, we're investing a lot that we won't get out for five years, but when we do, it's gonna be worth it. Probably, but it just, I'll let you know in a couple of years.
[00:24:21] But, you know, I get to make decisions that are just focused more on the bottom line and what the investors want, and I'm really grateful for that.
[00:24:30] Lindsay: So when you took that 49,000, what happened next?
[00:24:35] Christina: Yeah, I quit my job at Stanford when everybody thought I was crazy, and I just, I thought it would take me a month to get a website up.
[00:24:43] I had a friend who made my first website for me, took a couple of months. I quit in June and launched in November, so it took longer than I thought. And then I just taught myself how to make a flower arrangement that I would wanna receive. So, to your point earlier, I wanted it to look like it was just picked from the garden.
[00:24:59] I want something that wasn't too fussy or too roundy, or didn't look natural. I wanted it to just look like, you know, like someone had just picked it from the garden for you, and it went through a lot of iterations. The first. The first product I launched with was just one daily arrangement. You didn't have any choice on size.
[00:25:18] We had one bouquet on our site, and that was it. And found out that people, wow. Yeah. I saw that people were buying it for themselves instead of as a gift, and I was like, this doesn't make sense. Why are they buying it for themselves? We're supposed to be in the gifting space.
[00:25:30] Lindsay: And how they did a little and how they didn't know that because they weren't filling out a card or…
[00:25:33] Christina: Yeah.
[00:25:33] It was going to be the same, like the billing address and the recipient address were the same. And it's like, you know, Rachel sending it to Rachel and stuff. And I'm like, Rachel, why are you sending it to yourself? You know? And so I did a little focus group with 10 people at a little wine bar, on Polk Street in San Francisco, and just asked them people who had bought more than two or more times for me.
[00:25:54] 'cause I think we had only been in business six months when I did this, and asked them like, why are you buying flowers for yourself? And they gave me great intel. They were like. Because you only have one size, and it's really small. Like, I don't wanna send that as a gift. I wanna send something bigger as a gift.
[00:26:07] Wow. But I love to have this just on my table at home. So I went and immediately, I think three days later, I launched sizes, and had much bigger sizes on our site. Then we added plants. That was another thing. People said they wanted to have more diversity, added bases, plants, things like that. And then just kept growing from there.
[00:26:25] Lindsay: Did you always have the burlap wrap from the beginning? 'cause that's one of the things, if people have not received this, when you get your farm girl flowers, it comes out of this really nice box also. But that has a beautiful burlap wrap with a ribbon tied around it.
[00:26:41] Christina: Yeah, it did. actually I've tried to get rid of the burlap a couple times since, 'cause I'm really okay.
[00:26:45] It's been 15 years now, and it started out where we were. It was amazing. I love this part of the story. You know, I contacted coffee roasters in San Francisco to see if they would let me buy their coffee. Burlap sack. I originally was thinking of potato sack from Indiana, so I was like, oh, they don't have those in California.
[00:27:01] So then I was like, coffee and it comes in burlap sacks. 'cause really it was about like it being biodegradable, upcycled. Okay. You know, better for the environment. You know, we save, you know, a ton of plastic every year, over a ton of plastic every year by using it instead of the cellophane wrap that comes on most flowers.
[00:27:16] Lindsay: Nice. Got it.
[00:27:16] Christina: Yeah. So it was better for the environment. And, Ritual Roasters was owned by a woman in San Francisco. They got back to me, and they said, you can just have it. Wee like that it's going to a good place. And so every Thursday, I'd go there with my old, you know, Nissan exterior that had 200,000 miles on it, and I'd load up the back of it with these old burlap sacks.
[00:27:34] And then I would go, and I'd cut them like with. Big giant scissors till my hands would bleed, you know, into pieces. And then we got bigger, and then we got, you know, Pete's coffee would donate and some other, you know, bigger ones. And then those companies stopped donating, probably for legal reasons, which I totally understand.
[00:27:50] 'cause it tends to be legal stuff with everything that they have, to stop doing. So we couldn't get the burlap anymore, and so we had to start buying burlap. And that defeats the whole purpose. They're not reused coffee sacks anymore, you know. Which I love. You know, the burlap is nice because it's biodegradable, but I was like, okay, since we're not actually upcycling, is there something else we can do differently?
[00:28:10] But every time we try to do something else, our customers get really upset. So we come right back to the burlap. We're like, okay, well, keep it, keep the burlap. People love it. So.
[00:28:19] Lindsay: Oh, that's an interesting one. It's like, how can you work around that? Like there's got, you know, don't you think like there's gotta be some sort of.
[00:28:26] Christina: Yeah. If anybody is at Pete's or Starbucks listening or anyone that wants to donate some burlap to us, we'll figure out how to get it to us and get it cut and everything, lemme know,
[00:28:34] Lindsay: It seems like a natural collab. Like, I mean, no, that's really, that's an awesome part of the story. So then were you just experimenting with some of the flowers that you described at the farmer's market?
[00:28:44] but also, and just seeing what you liked that looked the way that you described it.
[00:28:49] Christina: Yeah, I bought some, you know, I went to the library and rented, and got a loan, some books, and I didn't love all of the things in it, so I just stopped looking at other people's and just came up with my own. And the early years are.
[00:29:01] All over the place. Like, I was definitely learning on the job to get to where we are now. There was also a lot of engineering that went into it when we started shipping flowers, 'cause shipping took a lot longer. Yeah. So now we shipped to the lower 48 and I thought I'd be able to get that going in like a year, but it took me five years to get that going because it was really, it is really expensive to ship flowers.
[00:29:22] Lindsay: Oh wow. Five years.
[00:29:24] Christina: Five years. Yeah. And the subsidies are huge. I mean. When we started, I could only ship 20 a day, which we could ship, and then we went up to 40 a day because we're subsidizing, you know, each box would cost us, you know, I think at that time it was like $40 a box, but we're charging 25.
[00:29:41] Okay? And so we have to pay $15, have to come outta the flower cost. But you don't have that much to play with perishables. Like, you know, the giant companies, you know, make, you know, five, 6% net margins on. I mean, it’s here. This is not software margins here. These are like. Tiny margins to try to, you know, nobody makes over 10% net.
[00:30:01] So you don't have a lot of subsidy that you can afford. You can't, you know, take from the flowers or anywhere else because everything is expensive. With perishable products, you have to rush the shipments in, rush them out. You wanna get them in your customer's hands, you know, as quickly as possible, so they'll last longer for you.
[00:30:18] We don't want them in a cooler any longer for us. In your house longer, so everything's just expensive. So yeah, it took a long time to be able to afford it, until I could afford to subsidize each box, and we still subsidize each box that goes out. I thought by now, we wouldn't have to. Yeah.
[00:30:33] But shipping is just really expensive, which makes sense. I mean, there's a lot that goes into it.
[00:30:37] Lindsay: When did you hire your first employee?
[00:30:42] Christina: I hired my first employee when I moved out of my apartment in 2012. And yeah, I was just talking to the payroll provider that we use. I remember they came out to the flower market to set me up on a payroll system so I could do everything legally, and make sure that.
[00:31:00] From the start, I had all my employees on a payroll system. They were, it was so great. It's Gusto. If anybody's looking for a great payroll system, they're awesome. The two founders actually came and set it up at the Flower Mart for me. yeah. And then just have bootstrapped it, meaning like every time we have profit, we just invest that back into the company.
[00:31:17] So we didn't have any profit for 10 years. It, which is crazy. Like, I almost gave up at year nine 'cause I was just like, this is crazy. We did. $34 million in revenue and $36,000 in profit, and I was paying myself 60,000 a year. I was like, this is, and I'm working a hundred hour weeks minimum. Right? Never taking a day off, you know, like this is too much, you know, and gave myself one more year, and then COVID happened, and then it was just like, okay, you know, just.
[00:31:45] Just sprint and all speeds, you know, ahead and get more production set up and all those things. So COVID just kind of changed everything, because of the new distribution process we came out with, through COVID, it actually made us more profitable, and so we can actually stay in business longer, which is great.
[00:32:04] Lindsay: You mean because people were sending flowers?
[00:32:06] Christina: Well, 2020 was a really, it was a tough year for us, which I hate saying because it was such a whole year for everyone. Yeah. But people were sending flowers 'cause they couldn't be with people.
[00:32:14] Lindsay: Right.
[00:32:15] Christina: That they loved. But also, we had to change how we did business.
[00:32:18] We couldn't make everything in one warehouse any longer, as we did until then. So we had to diversify it, spread it out, which gets us closer to the end consumer. So shipping rates are lower, we make them more places. So if one gets shut down, we still can have production other places or, you know, something comes in vitus or some kind of, you know, disease on a flower we have somewhere else to, you know, to send those orders.
[00:32:41] So we just became a safe, it's safer how we do business now, and it also became more profitable because of that distribution model. So some good things came out of all the hard work. Yeah. During COVID. Yeah. We were able to figure out some things to make us a better and healthier, financially healthier company.
[00:32:55] Lindsay: So what would you say is the thing no one tells you that means the most to you from the journey that you've been on?
[00:33:06] Christina: That's a good question, too. You have great questions, let's say.
[00:33:08] Lindsay: Oh.
[00:33:10] Christina: Yeah, I think, like I'd heard how hard it would be, like, and I expected how many hours it would be, and just how.
[00:33:20] How physically and mentally demanding everything would be. But no one told me that the stress that would come from,l ike, worrying about running out of money and how to build a good company, and you know, kind of more like things like that are much more stressful than actually having to work 36 hours straight.
[00:33:41] You know, having to like really figure out, you know, why are you doing this? How are you doing it, you know? We're a very different company from the one I started to build and the one that I wanted to build, even. And that's okay. But that's been. That's been just a really big journey to get there.
[00:34:00] And also understanding that just in business, there's not a lot of fairness, and I'm a right fighter to the nth degree. Like I just will fight for what's right, girl. Yeah, I'm like, foot on those boots and let's go, you know? But you can't do that in business. You have to, you know, do things you don't wanna do morally, and that, that's hard for me.
[00:34:22] That's, you know, I don't have to like do things that hurt people, but I have to do things that kind of essentially, you know, like there's gonna be lawsuits that aren't fair, that you just have to settle because that's what you have to do to be in business. You know? And I'm someone who will be like, I wanna fight them because it's wrong.
[00:34:37] And then it's like, okay, but you're gonna spend a hundred times the amount fighting, you know, and then that hurts your team members worse because you don't have the money to pay them better. You know? So, yeah. You just, you gotta make concessions that you're, that I was never, nobody ever told me that was the reality of running a business.
[00:34:56] Lindsay: When did you come up with the name?
[00:34:59] Christina: Before I started it. So in 2019, when I was, or early 2020. Before 2000, I mean, nine or 10, sorry. Before I quit my job at Stanford, I actually came up with the name. I had gone through so many different names, probably. I don't know, 500 names to try to figure out what to call it.
[00:35:17] Lindsay: 500. Oh my God.
[00:35:18] Christina: Probably there's, just define anything that had the URL open was almost impossible, even back in 2009 and 2010.
[00:35:25] Lindsay: Yeah.
[00:35:25] Christina: Which is crazy. Yeah. So, yeah.
[00:35:27] Lindsay: And then came up. Was it just like this, is it, that's it When you
[00:35:31] Christina: I think so. I was concerned about it because I didn't want it to be.
[00:35:34] Considered too rustic or lot, you know, I was like, we wanna have really nice flowers, we wanna use better flowers. We wanna design them better. So I want it to be appealing to everybody. So I was a little concerned about it, like being too polarizing for, you know, like I don't want something that's like a farm, I want something like fancy, you know?
[00:35:52] Right. So. Yeah, I was worried about that. But I did ask, like, you know, I had a focus group of friends in those early days that I would ask a lot of questions to, and they all loved Farm Girl, and it was a nickname of mine from long ago, so it was kind of fitting too.
[00:36:04] Lindsay: So people called you Farm Girl?
[00:36:07] Christina: Yeah, back in New York when I moved to New York City. That was my friends in New York who called me Farm Girl. So.
[00:36:12] Lindsay: Oh, that's so fun. I love that. Yeah. So when you talk about the thing that no one told you about being stressed about those pieces of it, was there a moment that you initially were like, okay, we're good?
[00:36:27] Like, and knowing that you had the confidence to really push through, regardless of how bootstrapping it was, like what was that measuring stick for you?
[00:36:36] Christina: Yeah. I don't think there's ever been a point where I'm like,
[00:36:38] Lindsay: Wow.
[00:36:39] Christina: Okay. I've made it like, because I know too well that something could come along and put us outta business tomorrow.
[00:36:48] Like the pandemic taught me that, you know, like when we were shut down on March 16th, like everybody else in the world, but we had one, you know, one major fulfillment center in the US, and that got shut down. I was like, we have all these orders in the system. I have nowhere to ship 'em from. I have this little tiny distribution center in Ecuador that we just set up two months ago, and we're gonna have to train them on WhatsApp on how to do it.
[00:37:12] I mean, it was just like. You know, I sat on my couch that day, and I just, you know, after laying off, you know, or Furloughing, which ended up needing to be a layoff, 200 people, you know, in a parking lot with translators. I mean, it was horrible. It was just a horrible thing. And then to be like, okay, 10 years of my life.
[00:37:30] Is now going down the drain. Like, you know, I turned off all my credit cards immediately. I'm like, I don't know how much longer we can even stay in business. We still have to pay rent, we still have to do all these things. We have, how are we gonna do this? And I just sat on my couch, and I was like, I cried a little.
[00:37:44] And then I went for a walk. I lived on the ocean in California, and I just went for a walk there, and I just had this resolve during that walk where I was like, you know what? If I'm gonna have to go out of business and claim bankruptcy anyway, then I'm just, if I have to claim bankruptcy with a million dollars or $2 million, it doesn't matter.
[00:38:05] Like I'm still having to claim bankruptcy and go outta business, so I'm just gonna give it everything I've got. I'm just gonna. Like, and I thought I'd given it all I'd gotten before, and it was nothing compared to 2020, like nothing. And so I think that was the moment where it's not like I knew that I was gonna make it, 'cause I had no idea.
[00:38:25] But now on the other side of that, I look back to that moment, and I'm like, if I could make it through 2020, I can get through just about anything. And while that. I, it might be us going out of business. I can get through it at least, like, you know, we could have another pandemic, we'd have a, you know, a, I mean there are all the, I don't even wanna say all the worst thing scenarios that could happen that ended up in a lawsuit that's too big for us, our company to, to absolutely absorb.
[00:38:51] And, you know, we're bootstrapped. I don't have endless, I don't have money trees growing in the backyard. I don't have a huge, you know, cache of a private equity or venture capitalist that I can go to for more money or anything. It just is what it is. And if I, run out of money, we go out of business and I've done all the things I need to do to make sure that we're as safe as we possibly can be, but there's still so many things that I, that could happen that I will have no control over, that I know I, I need to be realistic.
[00:39:18] And I think that's every business owner's responsibility to their, you know, to their, to their teams to know that, so they don't ever get too. I dunno. Too comfortable, you know?
[00:39:29] It keeps me on my toes; it keeps me working really hard.
[00:39:32] Lindsay: And when you talk about your team, I love that, your team is mostly, or all women, is that?
[00:39:39] Christina: Not all.
[00:39:39] We have some wonderful men that work for us, too, but we are predominantly, we're over, I think we're 75% female. And I love that so much, and you know, people will try to. Spin it kind of negatively. I'm just like, oh no, don't do that. There has not been a place at the table for women for so long. We're not gonna go there, you know, so.
[00:39:59] Lindsay: I think it's amazing. And I also love how you describe your team as a high-performance sports team. Not really, not as a family. You don't use that. Yes. To describe it, can you talk a little bit about it? About that. I love that.
[00:40:14] Christina: Absolutely. Thank you. I thought you would in your background. So I correct people all the time with this, too.
[00:40:22] and people will say it a lot because we are a very close team. But I stop them every time I hear this because it's so important to me that we do not think we're a family. You know, there's. Only a few family members of mine that I would even hire. So for what we do, yeah, let's think about that. Like you can't treat your family the same way that you treat, you know, team members.
[00:40:41] You can't, you know, like. A family member's not performing, you still love them, and you keep 'em around. But if somebody is not performing at work, it's not fair to the rest of the team to have someone bring you down. Just like any sports team, you wouldn't keep somebody in a game that's doing horribly, right?
[00:40:59] Just because you love them. You know? That's not fair to the rest of the team. And so. I actually stole that from the Netflix Culture Deck is so great. We created our own culture deck, kind of based on that, we use that in the One Madison Park one as an example. They both have great culture decks that people wanna go see how really amazing companies lead.
[00:41:18] Lindsay: Wow.
[00:41:19] Christina: Yeah. Yeah. We created ours based on that and came up with our, our core values. And it's like, you know, things like, you know. Being a workhorse in a sea of unicorns or gristle like grit and hustle together, and you know, being competent and kind and things like that. They're just really important to us.
[00:41:37] yeah, so we just. I want us all to, to perform like we're a high-performing sports team, not like we're a family unit that can sit around and gossip and complain and, you know, not get things done because, you know, Sally over here is something's going on with her. And you know, like I want us all to be like, okay, we all show up.
[00:41:53] We all have to like, and even if you're on the bench, you're not like the, you know, don't think you're the most valuable player. You're still really important. And so everybody on our team is really important. And we run very lean, leaner than any. Company I know. Everybody wears a lot of hats, and we like it that way.
[00:42:11] It keeps us really good on whatever court we're on.
[00:42:16] Lindsay: That's a lot of work, right? Yeah. For one person. Yeah. I think it's funny because I think there are a couple of different analogies in sports that certainly apply. One of them is. When you hear people talk often about really great coaches, they talk about how they can find their way to connect and get through to, and really motivate all different types of athletes.
[00:42:37] You know, like that's a really powerful gift. And then also the fact that teams have to really, as you said, it's like you have to constantly be working together, but you can have that camaraderie, and all of that, like camaraderie, chemistry. But you're right, it doesn't have to be a family, you know?
[00:42:53] Christina: Nope.
[00:42:54] Lindsay: But.
[00:42:54] Christina: Nope. But the best teams do have great camaraderie, like you said, right? Like it's not like saying it's less than a family. Like a lot of team members, probably wanna hang out with each other more than they want to hang out with their family. So it's not a bad thing. It's a great thing, actually.
[00:43:06] It means that you're gonna give your best for the rest of your team.
[00:43:10] Lindsay: Oftentimes, it's what you said about people, that a leader being, like making the person that has maybe a job that's perceived as a lesser job in the totem pole. making that person feel just as validated and important and seen as the person that's like their right-handed man.
[00:43:27] I think that's so critical. Absolutely. Yeah. Do you are there times that get tough, like being in the leadership position that you're in, in terms of just navigating the human connection of it all?
[00:43:39] Christina: Yeah, I mean, I think the hardest thing is letting people go that aren't a good fit, honestly. Yeah. I think, you know, every book on leadership that I'd read, you know, before starting farmwell and even after was like, you know, the.
[00:43:49] The things that CEOs and founders wish they had known and done earlier were always to fire faster. Wow. And I really took that to heart. Yeah. People, I mean, there are a lot of people who don't think I'm really great out there because it hasn't worked out for them at our company, and I'm okay with that.
[00:44:05] Because in order to be a good leader for your sports team, you need to make sure that everybody's a good fit for that team. And it's not always a good fit. It's not always for both, you know, more for them. And, you know, I really believe that people want to do well. And if it's not a good fit for them to do well at your company, you should let them go do well somewhere else with one that's more aligned with what they're looking for.
[00:44:26] So I fire fast, and that's really hard. It's not like fun. It's not. What you wanna do is not, I'm a very, like, I don't, coming from a farm in the Midwest, we didn't deal with conflict well. It was just like, go to your rooms until you come out and gimme nice. You know, like we don't talk about things like,
[00:44:45] I had to learn to be okay with conflict and to, you know, sit in my stomach ache for a while, you know?
[00:44:51] Lindsay: Yes.
[00:44:52] Christina: Because it's the right thing to do for the team, even though it's really hard, 'cause you never wanna let people down.
[00:44:57] Lindsay: Yeah, that's really fascinating too. What, how would you describe the culture of Farm Girl Flowers, and what you guys want it to be?
[00:45:05] Christina: I think we have a culture of integrity.
[00:45:07] It's something I've just, I realized this a couple of weeks ago. I was like, every person on our team has such high integrity, you know, I never have to worry. Like nobody would have to worry that, like, you know, someone's not doing their job or like, you know, that if, you know, all of the leadership was gone with the other team members, like still come in and do their work really well.
[00:45:26] Absolutely. Everybody has really high integrity and wants to do a good job. He genuinely wants to do a good job. They care tremendously for themselves, for each other, and for the company. And I think that's the best thing you can have on your team.
[00:45:41] Lindsay: To you, like in terms of the bootstrapping culture, what would be the advice that you would give to someone who's maybe similar to where you were once, where they have an idea, they have something they're really passionate about, that they wanna start, but they're sort of in that place where it's like, I've got this chunk of change.
[00:45:58] Maybe they're thinking about investing, maybe they're just wondering what the options are, but what would you tell them about what you've learned about the bootstrapping piece of it?
[00:46:07] Christina: I think bootstrapping is a great option, and nobody talks about it because it's not the sexy story that makes the cover of every business magazine.
[00:46:12] You know? I think about the reason why you're building your company, and if it's because you have to get the cover of that magazine, which was truly one of the goals I had as well. So I'm not here to judge that. I had to get over that. Then bootstrapping is gonna be hard 'cause you're never going to get there quickly.
[00:46:30] If you have a great idea, someone's gonna come and steal it with a lot of fun investment behind them, and they're gonna get bigger than you. And that's just the way it is. That's why people get investment. Right. But if you're doing it 'cause you really want. The learning of starting a company and having that journey and getting to learn all the things about it, which is what I wanted.
[00:46:49] I wanted to, you know, start and scale a business. I wanted to know what that felt like. I wanted to be able to prove to myself that I could do it. and probably wanted to prove to other people a little bit too, which is not great, but it's. The truth, you know? Yeah. There's just kind of this, like, when you've been underestimated a lot in life, you're just like, I wanna show people that I'm capable.
[00:47:08] but you know, that learning and that journey, if that's what you want, why you wanna start a company, or, I hear a lot of people that wanna start companies because, and, they want to be small. They want the flexibility and things like that that they don't have with, you know, a full-time job somewhere else.
[00:47:22] Just know what your outcome is before you start. Know what the possibility is before you start. Like, if you wanna start a company and you want it to, you know, just spin off enough for you to live on, see what other companies are doing before you start with that. Or if you want a company that's gonna be a billion-dollar company, like I started off my company wanting it to be, know that I would've had to get investment for that.
[00:47:46] There's no way for me to get there. bootstrapped, there's just not the amount of money we would need to spend on marketing to get there, we will never have. And so. If that was my only goal starting out, I wouldn't have started this at all. But if my goal was like, I also just want to see all the stages of scaling a company.
[00:48:04] Then bootstrapping is a great thing, and you know, you actually can make a lot more money bootstrapping than a lot of people make with investment companies that have a lot of investment, and nobody talks about that. Because, you know, again, it's not gonna make the magazines because you're looking at numbers that are small, medium businesses instead of being giant companies where you own 2% of your company at the end of the road.
[00:48:28] Lindsay: And isn't that changing for you now? Because you might not have been making the magazines, but you're making the Today Show. I mean, you're on there. Yeah. With your product in very big ways, you know, in other places as well.
[00:48:40] Christina: Yeah, I mean, I still have to pinch myself. We're so fortunate that. I mean, the Today Show is so kind to us, and I just, I mean, your husband's so kind, they're just so amazing.
[00:48:50] To care about a small company like us and wanna, you know, support us that way as well. I mean, most companies in our industry are paying for. Lots of placements and things, and we've been very fortunate to have so much in the media that actually still cares about telling good stories. And we do have a story, 15 years of bootstrapping.
[00:49:11] This is a very long trajectory, and for being able to do this, we have a story, and it's a good story.
[00:49:18] Lindsay: Do you, what are you most excited about with that story?
[00:49:22] Christina: I'm most excited about what's next. I love that we get to keep. Recreating who we are and what we wanna do. I'm really excited about having a farm Quarters in Washington, where we're all back in person, and we get to work.
[00:49:34] You know, COVID was so hard working remotely in a creative industry. I think that, you know, we, I wanted to think that it could be done, but it just couldn't be done well, and I'm so like, it's, it's. invigorating getting to work with people in person again, in the creative space,e and getting to like, collaborate, and come up with better ideas.
[00:49:52] And so I'm excited about where we're gonna go in the next five to 10 years.
[00:49:56] Lindsay: That's awesome. We were at the Rose Parade and got to see some behind the scenes on how they do the floats, and when we walked into the. Two of the warehouses, and they just had these flowers that were so, they were all individual, in those little, what do you call them? The water, what is it like?
[00:50:12] Christina: Oh, the water tubes, yep.
[00:50:15] Lindsay: And it was like, it was a site that when you walk in, I was like, I've never seen this before. And it's just so amazing, and there's just something that feels so beautiful and organic about all of it. Anyway, that was just really cool.
[00:50:27] Christina: It does help your mental health.
[00:50:28] Flowers do help your mental health. It's proven
[00:50:30] Lindsay: Is that what I believe that?
[00:50:31] Christina: It's proven. Yeah. It's totally been proven, and I feel that way. Every time I'm surrounded by flowers. I'm like, it's just how can you not be happy? You know?
[00:50:37] Lindsay: Do you talk to your flowers?
[00:50:39] Christina: I talk to flowers, my dog, I talk to everything.
[00:50:42] Probably that person's a little, you know, I even answer sometimes.
[00:50:48] Lindsay: I love it. And you also, I wanted to ask you about saying that working in your business is sometimes just as important as working for, is that, am I getting that right?
[00:50:57] Christina: Yeah.
[00:50:57] Lindsay: What? What? Okay. Yeah.
[00:50:59] Christina: Like so many people told me early on, like you, you are like, you know, I'm in a CEO group, and I heard this a lot.
[00:51:04] Like you're too in your business, like you shouldn't be working in your business like that. You should be working on your business. Yeah. You need to be thinking up peer, not down here, all this stuff. And I'm like, do you know how much great thinking I have when I'm in the business and then figuring out all the things that aren't working that I need to change and do better?
[00:51:19] Like, if I'm not in the business, I'm not gonna know that. You know?
[00:51:22] Lindsay: Yeah.
[00:51:23] Christina: I just, I disagree with that. So I, and I think there's finally now more talk, you know, Airbnb founders have been talking about like small teams and things like that. Like I think the doers are the people that are gonna know how best to do, and so stay being a doer, you know, that's what I think.
[00:51:40] I mean, they're, now, they're calling it founder mode and stuff, and I'm like, we have to put fancy words on just like. Doing the work. You know,
[00:51:46] Lindsay: It’s also, it's funny, I think that's something that's really relevant to all industries. It certainly is relative in ours. Like in the way that I see that is, you know, there's sort of a trajectory when you're coming up, even in broadcasting, and maybe, well, the way it used to be now, it's very different with streaming, but it's like it used to be maybe you start out and you're reporting than you're anchoring.
[00:52:03] Anchoring. And you're getting to this like hosting situation and all of that is great, but what you learn is like. I am actually so much more lit up by the opportunities that I have, where I can do the reporting that feeds into the hosting. And sometimes in the past that has been frowned upon at different places, being like, well, no, you're, it's very separate, but does that make sense?
[00:52:25] Christina: Yeah. I don't. Absolutely makes sense. Like you, you're like, but this is the part where it's like good, you know,
[00:52:30] Lindsay: Like, don't shoot around out.
[00:52:32] Christina: Here.
[00:52:32] Lindsay: Yes, to talk to a player and actually, even if that's not on camera, but to get that one-on-one connection. So then, laterI actually have sort of a basis and a confidence when I'm explaining what that story is.
[00:52:45] I think that's a, that's something that no one really tells you and talks about, and you have to fight for that and just figure out how you are gonna do that. Don't step on toes and just do you, you know?
[00:52:55] Christina: Yep, that makes complete sense.
[00:52:58] Lindsay: We just talked about working for it, and now your husband is kind of working for it. I did wanna ask before we go, so you got married in August?
[00:53:05] Christina: Yep.
[00:53:06] Lindsay: Tell me like, how'd you meet him? Yeah. And what's his name? We should get that up.
[00:53:10] Christina: Yeah. Keith. Keith. Yes, he's wonderful. Keith Grossman, he, I met him through a flower friend. A very ironic, weird story. My mom was coming to visit me up here in Washington, and I was like, what am I gonna do with her?
[00:53:22] You know, like, my mom's a doer too, and I'm like, I gotta keep her busy. You know, she. The farm mom. So, I, you know, called a friend, we're gonna meet her for dinner. And she's like, oh, but I'm hosting a flower crown workshop making workshop. Before that, why didn't you bring her to that? And I was like,
[00:53:38] Lindsay: Oh,
[00:53:38] Christina: You know, on a Saturday, though, like the last thing I really wanna do is flowers, honestly.
[00:53:43] But I was like, okay, my mom's gonna enjoy this. So, I took my mom to the flower crown-making workshop, and it was with a really wonderful woman named Sandy at her house. In Woodenville up here, she has a small flower farm there, and just a lovely, wonderful woman, and she emailed me. A couple of days after that and just said like, Hey, I never do this, but my son-in-law's best friend is back in the dating game, and I think he's from the Midwest.
[00:54:13] You're from the Midwest. I think you guys would really hit it off. And I was like, what? You know? And I was. Yeah, first my first response was gonna be like, no, you know, but I was like, you know what? I'm new to the area. It's always good to have friends anyway, so I said, sure, why not? And the rest is history.
[00:54:29] We got married a couple of years later, just got married, you know, last August, and have been, and he then got into the, he has a small business of his own. I feel a little bad. I probably pull him to ours more than his. okay. But yeah, he is helping with all of our farm operations. So he grew up working on a dairy farm and has a lot of that experience.
[00:54:49] So it's just perfect and super hard. The worker comes in all in Bud and stuff like this is like full circle Indiana, you know, I never thought I'd be here, you know.
[00:55:00] Lindsay: When you first met him, when you guys went out the first time, what was your reaction?
[00:55:04] Christina: My reaction was that he was really nice, but probably like would be friends only. And I was wrong, but I do like the first date was so funny, where we had done a Capital One commercial, and we, you know, two small business owners talking a lot of business, and he's like, oh, I have the best hack for you. I don't like, I just, I don't know if you know this, but Capital One has a cash back card that's 2% off everything, and that's how you can, you know, pay yourself and all that through this cash back.
[00:55:38] And I thought he was like, Joe, I thought he was like, kind of just, making fun of me because I was in that commercial, you know, the, like, he didn't know wall and he had no idea. He was clueless. So I was looking at him across the table, like, is he being rude? Right? I dunno. But he was just clueless and giving me a good, you know, colleague hack.
[00:55:58] Lindsay: Oh, that's so funny. What's his small business?
[00:56:01] Christina: He has a little business, small, pet vaccine, mobile pet vaccine clinic business called Good Neighbor Vet. It's up here in the Pacific Northwest.
[00:56:11] Lindsay: Oh, wow.
[00:56:12] Christina: Yeah.
[00:56:13] Lindsay: Oh my gosh. That's amazing.
[00:56:14] Christina: So we have, you know, puppies and peonies basically is what we have.
[00:56:18] Lindsay: I love it. I'm gonna come visit the farm. Can't wait.
[00:56:21] Christina: Please do I wanna,
[00:56:22] Lindsay: I'm gonna drag Melvin.
[00:56:23] Christina: Yes. Okay. Bring your kids. They would love it. We've got like all kinds of farm stuff and excavators and everything. They'd love it.
[00:56:30] Lindsay: Oh my gosh. One of my dreams is that I've always been intrigued by donkey farms, and I know that sounds like the weirdest thing, so I'm not gonna talk anymore about that.
[00:56:38] But I think that, no, and just to bring it full circle, it's funny because I think. My husband brought home a box of them, or somehow brought home flowers that were at the show after you had come on the first time. And I was like, this is absolutely, these are so beautiful. So I just did wanna say that what's so cool is like when you, when he brought them that day, and they were there from what had been on the show, it's like really when you do get those boxes, it.
[00:57:04] It is always exciting. Like it always seems like, 'cause you're just like, okay, what's in here? But it's really, you guys have really nailed like the aesthetic, just a creative vibe. And I think it's really, I love not knowing stuff. Like we did not find out what, if our, you know, kids were gonna be boy or girl.
[00:57:21] I know that people feel really divided about that, but like, so I really get a lot of satisfaction being like, what's in the box? You know?
[00:57:26] Christina: I love that.
[00:57:27] Lindsay: Yeah. That's really cool. Love it. So thank you, and I'm glad you made them bigger 'cause I love the big size. Thanks, they're
[00:57:32] Christina: Good.
[00:57:32] Lindsay: Yeah. Thank you so much, Christina.
[00:57:35] It's so great. Thank you. To talk to you, and hear your story, and I think there's just, there's so much in it that can be so relatable and also helpful for others. Is there anything else you wanted to share before we say?
[00:57:45] Christina: I don't think so. You had really great questions. Thank you for that. They're really, yeah. No, and I would love to have you come to the farm. So please do.
[00:57:52] Lindsay: Oh, thank you. I would absolutely love that. And good luck with everything, and I know that we'll, you know, we'll see you down the road soon, but just best of luck with keeping it all going. I love Christina's story, and I just think there's so much in there that's applicable to so many different, you know, types of people, whether you are in the workforce, whether you are not, if you have an idea that you're percolating on.
[00:58:17] I love her. An in-depth sort of explanation of the bootstrapping, because even here on Things No One Tells You. We've heard very opposite examples of that, but we have heard, you know, between her and Aliett Buttelman, it's like that drive that needs to really show up and just work your butt off. And how surprising that is.
[00:58:38] I always think that's a lesson that is like, okay, take note, shameless plug, not shameless because I'm the one saying it, but for Christina, just go to her website, Farm Girl Flowers. It is amazing, and there are so many different options there. So anyway, check that out. We will include all of that information in our show notes, so you can find show notes, things about the episode in depth, and just thoughts on lindsaycz.com.
[00:59:04] And as always, if you liked this episode, if you're liking what you're hearing or watching, please like and subscribe. And maybe the best way to support is to share an episode with a friend. So, anyway. Thank you for listening and watching Things No One Tells You, and we will see you next week. Thanks so much for joining me.
[00:59:21] I can't wait to see you back here next week. Please don't forget, follow and subscribe to Things No One Tells You. And of course, if you're listening on Apple Podcasts, don't forget to leave a five-star review because that's really what helps people get more. Listeners, we would love to grow this community.
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