WBE Feature – Women’s Health Awareness: Postal Petals

Intro: [00:00:07] Broadcasting live from the Business RadioX studios. It’s time for Women in Motion. Brought to you by WBEC West. Join forces. Succeed together. Now here’s your host.

Lee Kantor: [00:00:27] Lee Kantor here with Women in Motion. We have a great show today, but before we get started, it’s important to recognize our sponsor. WBEC West. Without them, we couldn’t be sharing these important stories. Today on Women in Motion, we have Talia Boone with Postal Petals. Welcome.

Talia Boone: [00:00:46] Thank you so much, Lee and I appreciate you for having me. Super excited to talk to you today.

Lee Kantor: [00:00:51] Well, I am excited to learn what you’re up to. Tell us a little bit about Postal Petals.

Talia Boone: [00:00:56] Yeah. So Postal Petals is an immersive wellness and self-care company that uses fresh cut flowers and do it yourself flower arranging as a tool for creative expression, mindfulness, and therapeutic exercise. And so what we do is we partner with domestic flower farms to ship boxes of fresh cut flowers to our customers all across the country for them to create their own arrangements. Then we also do virtual and in-person floral design workshops. We’ve got some corporate offerings, a few other kind of key audiences that that we solve with our wellness solution.

Lee Kantor: [00:01:34] So let me get this right. Like it’s a subscription box that like, you know, some people do snacks or, you know, skincare, but this is flowers.

Talia Boone: [00:01:44] Yeah. So the best way that I can describe it is I think about like a mail delivery service where they send you all of the ingredients and then it’s left to you to make the meal with the ingredients that they ship you. That’s ultimately what we do. And you’re able to we offer it in three box sizes and you can purchase on demand, meaning you can do one time purchases. But we’re primarily a subscription model where people can subscribe to have rather than, say, subscribe to have flowers delivered to you once a week, every other week, or once a month. We we say, you know, subscribe to have your, um, your, your wellness experience, um, scheduled. So again, it’s a three subscription option, either weekly, bi weekly or monthly.

Lee Kantor: [00:02:26] And then the flowers come kind of loose. And then the individual just kind of uses them, maybe in multiple vases or however they want to arrange it.

Talia Boone: [00:02:35] However they want to arrange it. And typically that that’s the number one most consistent feedback that we get from our customers is that you get a lot of flowers when that box shows up. So you’re typically making multiple arrangements. And we have some people that, you know, have really big vases and are able to make a single arrangement with all of the flowers in the box. But typically what we find is that people make multiple placements to go around their homes or offices.

Lee Kantor: [00:03:01] Now, what was the genesis of the idea? How did this come about?

Talia Boone: [00:03:05] Uh, you know what? This was one of those ideas that came out of, um, a hobby turned, um, profession, but really came out of necessity. So many years ago, I started arranging flowers. Really. My first entry point to it was as a friend activity. Just something to do. Kind of different with a friend that, you know, was different from, you know, coffee or dinner or lunch or something. And I found it immediately just really relaxing. It just resonated with me. And I started to, you know, whenever I would feel stressed or anxious in any way, I would go down to the LA flower market kind of mill around, never knew the names of flowers, just would mill around and, um, just kind of pick whichever flower spoke to me which the colors of that that made me feel good for that day, the shapes, what I thought would look good together. And then I would go home, put on, you know, some, you know, kind of like soft music, pour cup of tea and just kind of lose myself in the process of arranging flowers. And it just really became kind of my go to form of self-care whenever I’d feel stressed or anxious, have, you know, a lot of kind of emotional weight on me. I would just arrange flowers and I could just instantly feel that pressure just start to relieve itself from me in the process of prepping them and arranging them stem by stem.

Talia Boone: [00:04:20] It just was always very therapeutic for me. And then fast forward to the very early days of the pandemic. You know, here in LA, we’re based in LA. Um, you know, we went on lockdown about the second or third week of March, and it was, remember, only meant to be for two weeks, and that two weeks turned to four weeks, turned to six weeks, turned to, you know, a year and a half. But by the sixth week, it was becoming really clear that this was not a temporary situation like immediately temporary situation. And, you know, I just, like everyone else, started getting really nervous and anxious around the uncertainty of it all. What does that mean for me, for my family, for my livelihood, all of these things. And I was stressing. The walls were starting to close in on me. And, um, you know, I was, you know, meeting with my therapist twice, sometimes three times a week at that point. And she was the one who actually suggested she was like, you know, Talia, I haven’t heard you talk about arranging flowers in a few months. Why don’t you try that and see if that helps you to calm down? Because I’ve been really successful using that as a tool previously, and I thought, oh, that’s a great idea.

Talia Boone: [00:05:25] Um, the main. Problem was that the LA flower market was closed because of the pandemic lockdowns. And so I figured, uh, you know, I’m sure everybody’s you can ship everything at this point. Anything can be delivered. I’m sure I can find a company that could ship me fresh cut flowers that I could arrange myself. But as I looked, I really I couldn’t find it. People were shipping finished arrangement, which is traditionally what what people are used to, um, when engaging with flowers. But I just could not find a company that would just ship me, you know, a bundle of roses, a bundle of dahlias, a bundle of sunflowers that I would then, you know, break apart and create my own arrangement. And so, um, long story short, it was really that journey that led me to recognizing that there was a hole in the marketplace and that based on my background and, you know, marketing, PR, branding, brand strategy, I knew that that I had the expertise, um, to, to fill that gap. And so that’s how the Postal Petals was birthed back in, um, early May of 2020 is when I came up with the idea. We launched in beta by July, uh, of 2020. And we’ve been we’ve been, um, going and growing ever since.

Lee Kantor: [00:06:34] Now, is it something that, um, you have to invest a lot of energy and time in kind of educating the consumer of this is even a thing to do to create these wellness outcomes that people desire. Like, because I wouldn’t think that this is top of mind. Like you said, it was difficult for you to find kind of a mixture of cut flowers just sent to you.

Talia Boone: [00:06:55] Yeah, yeah. Lee. And that’s a really great question because that’s exactly one, probably one of our biggest challenges, right. Like I always say, just again, going back to my experience in in branding, I always say, you know, there are two major obstacles that any new brand typically comes up against when they’re coming into market. First and foremost, is brand recognition, right, making sure that people know that you exist. Um, the second thing is help, um, you know, kind of making people understand why they would prefer you over the alternative. Right? And this is typically apples to apples, like, why I would choose Pepsi over Coke or, you know, something like that, like a kind of even comparison for us. We had a third obstacle, which to your point, Lee, is, you know, why would I even want to do this? Right? Because as I, as I, you know, um, alluded to earlier, you know, people are traditionally and really generationally conditioned to experience flowers as a ready to use product and buy ready to use product. I mean, professionally designed by a florist, typically just either, you know, picked up at, you know, a retail space or delivered right to your door. You, you know, you kind of sit it down on your table, maybe you take a few pictures and throw it up on the gram.

Talia Boone: [00:08:06] But that’s really the extent of your engagement with flowers. You don’t really think about them as an interactive experience, and you definitely don’t think about them as as an interactive self-care or wellness experience. So a huge part of of what we’re doing right now is really educating people on the benefits of arranging your own flowers, right? The idea of, you know, this being the floral, um, version of, you know, when people will say, oh, you, you know, you need to go touch grass, meaning go and connect with nature, right? And, you know, talking about gardening as a comparative for flower arranging, you know, both being, you know, when people talk about touching grass, it’s really what they’re saying is you need to go and connect with nature because that’s, you know, that those are those things like are scientifically proven to improve your, your well-being. And gardening is is also a known therapeutic. People who garden talk about how incredibly meditative it is and how therapeutic it is just to have their hands in the soil and, and just be working with the earth.

Talia Boone: [00:09:07] And so we a lot of our, our kind of messaging, um, with, with our flowers has really been around finding comparisons that people can understand. And, and then we do a lot of work in the community. Right. We host regularly, uh, what we call our free community wellness events. And it’s typically kind of curating an experience so that people begin to associate flowers in this way of, you know, of self-care and wellness. So we’ll typically start with movement, which is usually walking, hiking, or a gentle restorative yoga session followed by either a guided or sound bath meditation or a, you know, breathwork exercise. And then we have them take that peaceful energy into just a really relaxing, um, floral design experience. And we find that when people are kind of guided, um, through that journey and kind of culminating with that floral design experience, they get it right away because it is incredibly, incredibly relaxing. But that is that’s an obstacle that we, you know, are constantly coming up against and trying to find new ways to educate people on, um, not just, you know, the art of flower arranging, but really why why it’s a wellness and self-care benefit to them.

Lee Kantor: [00:10:24] Now, um, when you’re out in the marketplace, are you selling primarily locally, or is this something that anybody around the country can, uh, go to the website and order?

Talia Boone: [00:10:37] Oh, yeah. We we absolutely ship nationally. So the way that our that way that it works is we partner with domestic flower farms. Um, and then we ship the boxes of flowers all across the country. So we are an e-commerce platform for consumers. So they’re able to go onto our website and then select the flower recipe, um, that they like best based on the flowers that are curated in that recipe. They tell us what box size they want, and then they let us know, do they want just a one time purchase, or do they want to subscribe to receive that box again, weekly or bi weekly or monthly? And then we ship those boxes to them overnight via Fedex. Um, and we ship anywhere in the continental United States. And then when they receive that box, they open it up and right away they’ve got, um, they’ve got some instructions on what to do when they get their flowers. First thing is always, you know, give them a little trim and put them right in water and let them, you know, kind of hydrate and perk up for at least 2 to 3 hours. And that’s really because because we ship, you know, usually the flowers have been out of, of water for, you know, at least at least 18 to 24 hours by the time they arrive to their recipient. And so we give them some quick care tips to get their flowers to perk up. And then once their flowers have rehydrated, they’re able to scan a QR code on the box that takes them right to our website, where we start to kind of give them, um, some more specific design tips, uh, for, for those specific recipe that they have.

Lee Kantor: [00:12:04] So on your website, there’s kind of instruction or education about how to, you know, attractively design. Of Acer because I would imagine people haven’t had this experience before, so they don’t even, you know, they don’t want to necessarily. There’s probably no right or wrong, but they want to look good. So there’s probably techniques to make it look as good as it can. Right.

Talia Boone: [00:12:27] That’s exactly that’s exactly right. It’s it’s interesting. I appreciate you asking that because we’re actually in the process of, of redesigning our website and having it be one that will support a design app that we’re ultimately build, that we’re working on building out now, that’s really intended to kind of show people all the different ways they could design that one recipe. So they may have one recipe, and we may have, you know, 5 to 7 different design videos that they can tune into, um, that can show them different ways that they could arrange the flowers, you know, in their vase. Right. So it’s to say, you know, our box is for the three sizes that they get will come with, you know, six, 9 or 12 bundles of flowers. We will we always say to people, don’t feel like all of those flowers have to go together in a single vase. If you like two of the flowers together, maybe it’s a you have one arrangement that just has two types of flowers, one arrangement that only has one type of flower, one arrangement that has, you know, four of the six or, you know, just kind of showing people that they don’t really have to be, um, just because we curated them together in a box doesn’t necessarily mean that they all have to go in a single arrangement together.

Talia Boone: [00:13:36] It’s really kind of a more, um, holistic, uh, esthetic curation to say that these flowers, when placed in proximity, will all look good and we’ll all look good together. And so, um, yes, they can go on to our website and see, um, design tips. And, you know, within the next I think probably I think 4 to 6 weeks, we’ll have the new site up where they’ll be able to see even more design videos and tutorials for the recipes that they have. We’re actually really excited about that because, you know, again, that’s one of the things that that we’ve heard from our customers most is that they’d love to see more tutorials, more videos that kind of support them, um, through that design experience. Because to your point, uh, for the most part, most of them have not, you know, they’re novice. They’re very new to this experience. And so the more that we can support them, um, the more they’re willing to to give it a try.

Lee Kantor: [00:14:26] Now, can you share a little bit about the reason you decided to become part of WebEx West?

Talia Boone: [00:14:33] Oh, wow. Yeah, that’s an easy one. I’m all about finding your community and finding your people. And, um, I just I met a couple of of women who were, um, a part of Webrequest and, and, uh, um, were, were certified women owned businesses, and they just, you know, really raved about the way the women worked together, the way they collaborate, but also the way, um, we bec uh, overall, we bec West in particular, really goes out of their way to curate, um, experiences and opportunities to get you in front of, um, your in front of corporate clients, which is, you know, again, when I talked earlier about, you know, we we have several key audiences, one of which being um, corporate partners. And there’s the, the opportunities that exist when you become a certified WebRTC, uh, member just cannot be matched. Right? Because when it’s almost like giving you an extra leg up and, and point of entry when you’re trying to get connected to brands that you may not currently have, you know, relationships with, they they set up opportunities for us to, you know, pitch them on our products and services, actually talk to them about how we can make our offering more compelling, you know, so that we can, you know, be, um, more likely to, to land contracts and those kind of things, they, you know, help us with, you know, creating capability statements so that we we know that the, you know, kind of initial, um, presentation explanation of capabilities and services are being presented and laid out in a way that, that, um, that corporate, um, um, partners and potential clients would, would want to see. So it’s just, um, it’s been a really, really incredible experience. I actually just earlier this week, um, uh, submitted my renewal, um, for them, we renew every year, and I don’t anticipate a time when I won’t be a member of, um, of WebRTC, in particular WebRTC West. I think that their, their programing and the way that they support their members is, is bar none.

Lee Kantor: [00:16:34] Now, um, it would be remiss for me not to ask you, since you are a marketing and branding expert, any advice for the entrepreneur or aspiring entrepreneur out there? Like, what are kind of foundational elements of branding and marketing that you would recommend somebody explore if they have a new venture like yours was new in a space, and you were kind of creating that space. Um. Any advice?

Talia Boone: [00:17:00] Yeah. You know what the the two main pieces of advice that I give any, um, any new founder, any new entrepreneur is first and foremost ask for help because you’re likely going to be doing something that you’ve not done before. And it’s there are so many people that want to help you. They just need to know that you need help. So absolutely, absolutely ask for help and allow people, um, allow people to be of service to you by helping you to grow the business that you’re that you’re, that you’re building. The second thing would be collaborate, collaborate, find other people to collaborate with. Right. I always, I always say one of the core, um, value tenets of, of postal petals is that African proverb that says, you know, if you want to go, um, if you want to go fast, go alone, if you want to go far, go together. And I just believe strongly in the power of collaboration, you know, cross, um, cross branded, uh, collaboration on social media for giveaways, those kinds of things. Whenever we do giveaways, we always do them in partnership with at least one, but sometimes up to 3 or 4 other other, um, emerging brands.

Talia Boone: [00:18:08] And that’s because when you’re when you cross promote, you’re able to introduce your product and service to their audience and they’re able to introduce, um, their product and service to, to your audience. And it’s just a really great kind of cost effective way for you to expand the visibility, um, of, of your brand. And then the third thing that I’ll say, and this, this probably comes from my, you know, kind of professional training as a, as a, as a, as a publicist is never underestimate the power of earned media. You know, most of the time when you’re starting a new company, you know, you’re bootstrapping, meaning that you have very limited resources and earned media is an excellent way to gain brand recognition and to get the word out about, um, your story and what and what you’re doing. So, um, I would say, um, ask for help, collaborate and really, really, um, you know, focus on earned media in the early days as much as you can.

Lee Kantor: [00:19:06] So, um, what do you need more of? How can we help you?

Talia Boone: [00:19:11] Uh, you know, this is this being on right now is a huge help for me because, you know, for us, it’s all about continuing to, you know, to spread the message. You know, right now we’re in the throes of Mother’s Day promotions, and we’ve got a really exciting workshop that we’re that we’re rolling out for Mother’s Day that we’re super excited about, where we celebrate, you know, not just traditional moms, but, you know, people who are mother figures, you know, um, women who are aspiring to be mothers and really curating a space that’s safe for moms in all walks from all walks of life, in all stages. And so for us, it’s, you know, just continuing to push our message out, continuing to, um, to let people know that we exist, let people know that, you know, there’s a new way to experience flowers, there’s a new way to experience, um, self-care and its postal petals. And you know, where, uh, postal petals. Com and at postal petals across all, um, digital platforms. And so we’d appreciate people, you know, visiting our pages, liking our pages. Subscribe to our newsletter. Um, and, you know, purchase our box for themselves for a friend. Um, and just, you know, continue to spread the word about about floral healing and floral wellness.

Lee Kantor: [00:20:21] Well, thank you so much for sharing your story. You’re doing such important work and we appreciate you.

Talia Boone: [00:20:26] Oh, thank you so much, Lee. I truly appreciate it. Thank you. Thank you again for having me.

Lee Kantor: [00:20:31] All right. This is Lee Kantor. We’ll see y’all next time on Women in Motion.