MDY Business Spotlight - Plant Goals

Hey, everyone, it's Belinda Ginter from Million Dollar Year. I am here with one of our amazing company spotlights from Million Dollar Year, Desiree. We're going to hear all about Desiree's business, and I so appreciate you coming on today. I know you're very, very busy and have a lot going on, so it's great that you took the time to be with us.

Yeah, it's been. It's a few days this week. Have been days where I've been doing just, like, a little bit of everything, which I honestly think is one of my favorite things about having my own business and working for myself.

And entrepreneurism. Yeah.

Is being able to do. So I did everything from deliveries to inputting stock to doing an install at a downtown restaurant to coming back home to do this, and then I'm off again to make dirt. So a little bit of everything.

What the heck you do with. With what you just described. So tell us your full name and what. What your business is and, you know, what you do for a living.

Sure. So I'm Desiree Kretschmar, and I own Plant Goals, which is a house plant shop. We specialize in houseplants and houseplant accessories, and that's. That's kind of our shtick. And we opened first on Hunter street in a tiny little space. Like, I could put my hands out, touch both walls.

Yeah.

Yes. Tiny little spot. And we. It. It just started to grow quicker than I had anticipated. So we signed a lease, we got our new space, we were about to move in, and bam. Covid. So we were only open four months before.

Before COVID hit.

Yeah. Wow. And so I feel like I've just been sort of like, head down, run forward, and it's worked out, you know?

Tell me how you pivoted, because that's pretty. Like, not only did you just get into business. Right. Like, there's so many factors here where. I'd love to hear about how. How you kept your mindset good, how you pivoted, and how you stayed okay during that time.

Well, I mean, so many things, I think. Like, it sounds so cheesy to be like, things happen for a reason. Things happen. Whatever. Uh, but the day that I picked up the keys for the first store, I severed the tendon in this finger, and so I wasn't able to drive. So my partner Rich, actually ended up quitting his job and, like, chauffeured me around, took me to the greenhouses, like, did all of that part of it, because I wasn't allowed to drive. For almost six months.

Wow.

And getting into Covid It, I would have just been on my own, trying to figure out this pivot and to move into this new thing we were doing. Luckily, I had 10 years of online marketing experience behind me and building websites, so it was like lockdown one day, open our website online the next day and go from there. So I lucked out, having that sort of. That background built in. A lot of people, they held off on the websites for a really long time. And I was like, you got to do it now. It doesn't have to be perfect. It has to be done. Where are you going to earn any money? It has to go, you know? And so that. That worked out for us. And Paul and the whole team at Ashburnham Realty were fantastic, helping us find some extra space here and there so that we could bring in more plants. And they've been like cheerleaders for us and I think all of their tenants the whole time. So it was great to be sort of under that umbrella.

So beautiful. Because some didn't have that experience of landlords. So it's nice to hear that you had a great one that was able to work with. With you and problem solve. Right. And I think that's essential when you are an entrepreneur and you do have lease space. One of the things people don't talk about is really interviewing for the right landlord. Not just taking anything, like really kind of talking to other tenants about their experiences, things like that. Find out their reputation in the city you're looking at to open in. I think that was really underrated, and I think Covid put that on the forefront. But it should have been something we were all doing. And I can admit that there's times I probably didn't do my due diligence with finding out reputation first. And I just get excited about space.

You're eager to start it, right? You're like, idea, go. And that's. I mean, that's really how the plant store started in that. Like, I grew up in Peterborough. I remembered seeing that little space go through a bunch of different iterations on Hunter Street. And when I saw it come up for rent, I was like, but wouldn't that be a really cool plant store? And that's as much thought I put into it.

Wow.

And signed the lease. And the whole team there was like, this would be a cool plant store. Go. And I. And I went for it. And that's. I mean, that's. We're here today.

I love it. So what do you think sets you apart?

What sets us apart? I mean, the business in general. I think we're the only ones doing strictly houseplants. Like, we do houseplants. That's it.

It's not a nursery. We're focused on house plants.

Okay. And so we. We really, really specialize in that part. And we all have our own stories. Like, me and the staff have different stories about the plants in our home. Obviously, I'm, like, surrounded by them. So being able to relate that back and forth and have these, like, relationships with our customers about the stories they have about their houseplants and whether they're just getting into it or looking for something, like, a little harder to find, we just, like, have locked down that chunk that we're working on and then moving into bringing houseplants into the workplace. So that's another big sort of like, behind the scenes thing we've been doing is offices. We did a restaurant today. We did some other little workspaces around town. And I honestly love doing that part.

So much because that's fun, right?

It changes the workspace. Yeah, totally.

And I also pick hotels. When I travel, one of the biggest things I look for is like, I prefer, like, a boutique hotel over, like, the large chain ones. Yeah. And one of the reasons why is because they do add plants and they do bring the indoors or, sorry, the outdoors, indoor, and make you feel a different way when you're traveling. It almost gives a homey feel. So if I'm doing a lot of traveling, I do look for those boutique hotels who. Who have people who bring in the plants and the outdoors. Because you feel different around them.

It changes it a lot. And I remember thinking, like, when I. So when I was a kid, my mom is a plant lady. I actually have a photo of my. And she's like, younger than me now in this picture. And I keep it up here because it's like, this is clearly where I got it from. Because I remember going to friends houses and being like, where's your plants? Like, what? Yeah. Why is your house so weird? Like, it's just a different vibe, right?

Absolutely. Yeah. And I think it makes a house a home. So I love how you. You really, really focus on that. And I love how workspaces are changing and why people want to feel like I work from home, even when I'm in a corporate setting, you know, and having some of those pleasantries.

Well, and there's so many studies that they've done showing that, like, you know, people show up to work more, there's less absenteeism, there's less turnover, there's higher productivity, there's better workplace culture when you have these plants around. And if you're in a big, booming office space and you add plants, you're getting rid of some of that echo. You're like, it just changes. It, like, in the blink of an eye. As soon as you add plants, it just feels different.

So you seem very, very passionate, and I love that. Like, I don't care what people sell or what their niche is, but when they can attach, like, personal stuff to it and can explain it the way you have it is so amazing. But what do you think you're most passionate about in business? You kind of mentioned a little bit when we started about the flexibility and the freedom and the variety to be creative. But is there other things or do you want to build even on that? Because that's huge, too.

I think that is part of it. That, like, you know, each day I could decide to do something completely different. And yes, there are things that I have to do, but every day looks a little different. And sometimes I'm like, no, Desiree, you need a schedule and put these on these days. And it never can work out that way because, yeah, if there's a hole, I have to fill it. You know, we had a member of our staff injured, and so, you know, you have to change what you're doing to make up for things like that. And you just. You cannot plan far enough ahead. If you're an employee, you have a fairly set. This is what I do.

Yes.

If you're the employer, it's a. It's the wild West. Like, it's.

You know, I love that description because it really describes entrepreneurship completely. And I think you're right. It's that ability to be nimble that. That creates a sustainable success. Right. Because unless you're able to be nimble and jump in there when you need to, or take a shift here or change the hours here. Cause you're seeing some sort of patterning where people aren't coming in and you're not quick on those trends. Then we can be dinosaurs in business just because of our own stubbornness as entrepreneurs as well.

It's a dangerous saying of like, well, this is how we've always done it. It's like, there's none of that. You can't.

Yeah.

Especially these days when things change so fast, you know?

Yeah.

We were rewriting the business plan every two weeks during COVID It was like, well, now we do this. Well, now it's like this. Now it's like, you know, you had to keep changing it and if. And it was exhausting.

Absolutely.

But I don't know, you. You do what you got to do.

To make and do you think it's part. Do you think we kind of subconsciously like it though because we seem to as entrepreneurs be kind of attracted to it?

Yeah, yeah.

Like the only thing constant is change. And I think because we're good with change or we make ourselves good with change, I don't know for naturally like this. I think that both, I think we're born with some entrepreneurial ism, but I also think that we develop as an entrepreneur and a business owner as we go too. And I think really just that ability to change and accept change and even thrive in change is such a quality. Yeah, I agree.

I think it's so easy to get like stuck. You could get stuck in a rut if you didn't like if you weren't teachable and you weren't constantly wanting to learn new things.

No, I love that. So what are you passionate about outside of work? Hobbies? Anything that you love to do?

Animals have always been a big part of my life. There's a lot of pets behind me. We recently said Goodbye to my 16 year old dog. I'm sorry, I mean he was, he was ancient. We, I can't say anything, you know, bad about it.

He lived a long line.

He lived good. But I've always had pets and can't imagine the same as having plants. I can't imagine not having pets. And I've loved doing, you know, volunteer work or doing fostering or I would love to work with the Queen Kortha Wildlife.

Nice.

I don't know. They're full of course a lot of society. I love working just with nature and with animals. And my family is like rich has gotten into the pets more now that we've spent over a decade together.

It's part of like coming with you. If you're with me. This is come with a bit of a zoo.

My mom always had tons of pets. Like we just, I grew up in a little, a weird little jungle and it was like she still does to this day. It's like, oh, this dog can't find a home. This cat, this, you know, it's. You're taking in the poor cases.

I think we had the same type of mom. My mom was very much the same way. If a bird got injured in the neighborhood, they knew where to bring it. She'd always like, we always had those boxes out there with like someone mending A wing? Well, someone, you know, was bringing a cat that needed some attention or was malnourished, and she's feeding it. So it does change you. It makes you more of a nurturer in life, too, when you kind of go out with people like that around you. For sure.

I think so. Like, even in. So this tank right behind me.

Yeah.

Is a tree frog that came in on one of our plants from one of our shipments. No way. So he can't. I couldn't let him go. You know, he's, like, not native to here. And I have two lizards in the living room that also came in on plants, because sometimes that happens.

I wouldn't even think of that. But what countries are you shipping in from?

So these. Those three all came from greenhouses in Florida. So it would have just been something that got in and hitched a ride. And now they live safe and sound in my house. So they're not getting out and being in nature. They don't belong here.

So one passion bought you the other passion, it sounds like.

Yeah. By accident.

I love about it. So what do you think you're most proud of in your business? Probably really being resilient and going into business and then keeping it going during such a turbulent time. But is there anything else that you're really proud of in business?

I think, yeah, the resilience. I mean, it feels like I'm tooting my own horn, but part of it is like, you know, it's the same as if you had 10 children. Well, you'd find a way to do it because you did.

Exactly.

So having all these, you know, avenues and all these different things come up. I don't know if it's a woman thing. I don't know if it's an entrepreneur thing, but you just do what has to get done. Right. Like, you're like, okay, next. Bring it on. Okay, let's keep going.

Absolutely.

And part of that is, you know, watching for the signs of burnout, because it's gonna happen.

Yeah.

But, you know, being able to know, like, this is, you know, for these weeks, I can go really hard, but I have to take a rest after that. But honestly, I'm just. I'm proud of how the business has come along. It's grown into something. I had no idea when I started. And I think that our sort of connection to the community and how we've worked with customers has been really good. We've had very, very few knock on wood complaints. I mean, people who are buying plants are generally happy people anyhow. But I've worked in a lot of retail jobs in the past and you.

Know, where that wasn't, you know what.

Comes along with that?

Yes, yes. No, of course.

But yeah, building that community and just, you know, taking each next step. Like, okay, what, what do we do next? What does the next few months look like? And just being like all the pivoting that we had to do during that time, not just for myself, but for my team as well and for my family who's had to put up with it.

There you go. Right. Because it's never just us. There's people that come along with us for the ride. And I love how you mentioned kind of the smart hustle and that's how I kind of look at it. Like, there's times where your business is going to need you more and there's times when your family's going to need you more. And people always talk about this balance in life. And as an entrepreneur and a business owner, I haven't experienced it much, to be honest with you. It's more of a teeter totter sort of vibe with entrepreneurship.

Someone described it once as. I cannot even remember who this was, but saying that there are, you're keeping all these balls up in the air, but some are rubber and some are glass and you can't, you can drop these ones from time to time, but you can't drop these ones. So you have to go between.

Yep. There's certain non negotiables. Right. That are always going to be there. I love that. So you joined our million dollar year mastermind and what piqued your interest in that, you know, what made you sign up? What was in your mind at that time? What were you seeking, I guess when you were looking at our program?

So for me it's being around people who are better, you know, people who have that mindset and people who can help get me what the next level. You know, it's the, if you're the smartest person in the room, find a new room. This is my new room. I want to connect with people who, you know, from people who have just started businesses, like, you know, newer people like me to people who are established and are going on, you know, 40 years of building these wonderful businesses and it's been fantastic to get to know people and just to like, I've made connections outside the Facebook group and oh.

I love doing that.

Just being able to connect with people here and because the program's not just, just here, but like. Yeah, to be able to make those connections with Other people who are sort of thinking in the same direction.

Yeah. One thing I love about it is just that everybody can be in different industries and you can learn from each other. Right. Like there's something that can be going on in the real estate world that someone running a B2B business can, can take and adapt and whatnot. Or we have some people from the United States in the program and Bermuda and other places and they may experience something, but they could just be seeing a trend coming before we do here in Canada and. Or vice versa. Right. We see something, a trend in the market or something and it starts to ripple effect go their way. But it's like that heads up too, I think, which is really, really powerful for sure.

And everyone's in such different. Like there's such a variety of industries that it's been neat to see like things that I never would have thought of as I see it coming from someone else. And you're like, how could I apply this to my business? How can I apply this to my life?

Yeah, it's great to bounce ideas back and forth and to learn from each other and learn with each other. I think one thing I felt in business often is that it can be a little lonely as a solo entrepreneur out there if it's just you facing the world. But when you feel like you have a community of like minded individuals, it just makes it, I think, more enjoyable. But I think it also can like almost prevent things from happening in your business before they even do because you have, you hear from different experiences and then you react differently when they show up in your world.

Yeah, well. And then you have those moments where you're like, is it just me? Like, am I just dealing with this thing? Like, is it just. And so, you know, I've connected with a lot of downtown business owners and like that it's such a good group of people.

Love it.

And so we're constantly chatting. These like, these are the people I talk to every single day. And we're always bouncing ideas off each other and collaborating and, and yeah. Looking for whatever the next thing is we're doing.

I love it. Can you share a win that you've had with. With joining Million Dollar Year? Something that maybe you didn't think of, that you applied, that you tried different, that they kind of got.

Yeah. So part of it is maybe the biggest one is something that hasn't quite happened yet, but is something that I'm working towards and that's incorporating within the next year.

Perfect.

That always felt like a big move that I didn't, I didn't know what it meant entirely. I didn't know. You know, when do you start? When. When is it the right time? How do you go about it? And knowing that there is a team of people who are ready to go, yeah, give me what we need and we'll make it happen, has been fantastic. Because I think, like, I. I wish that when you started a business, someone handed you a book that said, here's all the stuff you should think about. Yeah. Because you don't. There's so many little things that I was like, why didn't I know that? Why did I just talk to a business owner a few months ago who had been in business for several years and had never heard of wsib had no idea. And I was like, you got. You need to make some phone calls. But, you know, if you're doing it.

On your own, don't know. Yeah, it's true. And I think I went through the whole incorporation too, finally last year about. Honest to God, about four years too late and after a lot of taxes being paid. But again, like you, it just seemed like Mount Everest. I didn't understand it. I didn't know when I was supposed to do it. I was a little gun shy. I. It costs money to invest in. I thought, is this the right time to do it? Because you're, you know, sometimes we're hesitant because we don't want to make a mistake, but then that keeps us a bit stuck from asking the right questions.

Yeah.

But even that sometimes we don't know what is the right question to ask. And then that's the hard part. And that's why I love being a part of Masterminds is because there's no stupid question.

Yeah.

Ever. It's like, I've been able to ask.

So many things where I'm like, look, maybe someone else is also having this weird issue that I'm having. Like, I'm just going to put it out there because you don't know.

I love it. I love it. And you know what we've really enjoyed, like, having you in the Mastermind and like, how you participate and how you encourage others and how you do, you know, show up on the Facebook, you know, group or you're at the Tuesday trainings that we have once a week, and if not, you're catching the replay and commenting later. So, you know, Bob and I wanted to thank you for your participation and how you shine in that group, too, because what that does is it gives others permissions to do the same Right. Some people, when they join a bigger group, they can get a little gun shy with speaking up or sharing experiences. But it does help when people like you do it and are kind of the leaders within the group.

That this is me being like the keener student who's always like front row hand up.

It gets you ahead in life every single time. Right. So that's phenomenal. Well, we're so happy that your business is doing well. I love hearing all the new directions that you're going. We will be putting the link to her business down in the comments here and making sure that you can find Desiree and her amazing plant goals company when you need anything plant related. Because now we've just made houseplants cool. They go everywhere, don't they?

Totally. Yeah.

I've even been in like luxury boats and stuff and they have them in boats and stuff. So it just shows you though is you just have to be creative with your space. But anywhere like RVs, things like that, that you want to make just a little campers, you know, definitely in trailers in the summer where you want to make it feel like home and just not kind of the same old everywhere you go. This is a beautiful way to get creative to. To find new ideas. And her and her team are here to support you and finding the right ones for you. I know with cats, there's certain ones I can't have and things like that, but you have a knowledgeable team that's ready and willing to help. So we appreciate you and thank you for your time today. Any last thoughts that you would like to give before we sign off?

Honestly, I don't know. It's been a pleasure to be inside the group and I did. I sent my invite to a friend who's going to join for the intensive training. Yes, good. Another downtown business owner and she's excited to join in too. And I just, I'm so glad that this group exists. And I think for a lot of people it can be scary to invest in yourself and invest in something, but I have, hands down, gotten my value already. So, like.

And we're not even.

I just love it.

Yeah, I love it. And I notice, you know, the minute I started investing in my company, investing in my growth as a business owner is when my business really took off. So I am a huge advocate of leaping before you even feel ready into things like that because time and time again, it has paid off for me. You learn something every single time and. And you get things that you didn't even know you were going to get. Like as you said, you got some new business connections and you got some friendships and things like that. They're just added bonuses. Right? You were coming just for the knowledge and then these extra little things show up in your life. But yeah, we are so happy to have you and thank you for your time today. So all her details about her amazing company plantgoals CA will be attached to this, whether it's on social media or while it's in one of our emails. You will have all the details. So go check out her amazing, amazing business.

Thanks guys. Thank you.

Take care. Bye now.