Behind the Scenes of Growing My Garden Consulting Business

Foreign. Welcome back to the Grow youw Self podcast. Today I want to tell you a story. I'm going to tell you my story, the story of how I started my business. And this is going to be quite a detailed story. I've never laid out the facts like I am about to lay them out for you. I'm going to give you all the details of the first 15 months of growing my first garden consulting business. So if you love an entrepreneurial story, if you love, you know, the podcast, like How I Built this, I am a huge fan. Then this is my version of the How I Built this. And Guy Raz, if you're listening, happy to come on your show. This happened back in 2015 and I could not have written this story if I dreamed it up myself. But I got to live it and you're going to get to live it with me over the next few minutes. Now, why am I telling you this story? Not to brag, not to boast, not to like toot my own gardening horn, but instead to inspire you and to show you what's possible. I know you've heard it said, you cannot be what you cannot see. And so many of us are stuck in a rut of possibility where we wake up, we see the same people, we do the same thing day after day, and we just end up living the same day again and again and again. It's like Groundhog Day. You remember that movie, what was it, Bill Murray? That ends up being our day to day life because no one is coming into our earbuds or getting in front of us in a video and saying, hey, there are other alternatives. There are other things you could do. And there are lots of possibilities. These days, I think more and more people are waking up to the possibilities of becoming an entrepreneur. I know I meet people almost every day that say, oh my gosh, I would love to work for myself and have my own business. And the numbers are going up all the time of people that are starting side hustles and little things that they're trying to do on the side to earn more money and to eventually possibly work entirely for themselves. And so this is a story of a real life entrepreneur. That's me, who built a business from the ground up with just a few hundred dollars. So grab a cup of tea, a coffee, a green smoothie, whatever your choice of beverage is. And you might even want to get a pad, a pin, what do we call that, a piece of paper, a notepad, maybe a pen or pencil, and take some notes. Because I'm Going to be laying out the facts of how I grew my business and turned $450 from a preschool refund check into over $100,000 in revenue in just one year, actually 15 months. So here we go. Let's get started. So it all began in 2015, the fall of 2015. I'm a mom of four kids, and at that time, up until that time, I had been homeschooling them. They were all about to go into. My oldest was going to go into third, second, kindergarten, and then preschool. So this was the first year where it was possible that all four of my kids would be in some kind of formal school together. Now, up until this point, I'd been homeschooling, so I had zero kids in school literally the day before this started. So we start 2015, the fall of 2015, I had waved the white flag and said, I cannot homeschool anymore. I tried my best, did it for like four or five years, and I just. It wasn't for me. So I put my kids in school, and two of them, because of just adjusting into the school system, we chose to put into a private school for a year. And that gave us a bill of about $18,000 that I was responsible for. Well, I mean, my husband was going to help, but we definitely did not have a line item in our budget for an extra 18k. And so because I was the person who, you know, had agreed to homeschool and then chose to not homeschool, I felt like I was on the hook for that money. So as soon as my four kids got into school that fall, I was looking, hunting for a job, some way I could make more money. I previously, and still at that time, was working as a contract writer and researcher for a philanthropy business that I'd worked for since 2005. So I'd been there almost 10 years in various capacities, being a mom and working from home and things like that. So still working for them, but that wasn't going to cover my 18k bill. And. And so I started looking. I applied at a bunch of different places. I looked into being a teacher. I looked into being a substitute teacher. I tried to teach at that private school so they would waive tuition for my kids, but none of it was going to work because I had a preschooler and she was done with school at 12pm and I really didn't want to have her in daycare after that. I wanted to spend those last few years with her after school. All that said, oh, I also applied at MD Anderson Cancer Center. And St. Jude Cancer is a big part of our story. My husband lost his mom to cancer, and we had just lost both of his grandparents to cancer. And it's a big reason why we garden. And just a passion of mine is cancer prevention and treatment. And so I also applied at those two places and those were in development jobs. So they were going to have me on the road working on weekends and nights. It definitely was not going to fit with my time goals as a mom of four. Fast forward, probably October, maybe late September. I was like, if I'm going to work and pay for these bills for private school, I'm gonna have to just come up with my own business. Like, this is not. No one wants to work around my crazy schedule with four kids and pickups and drop offs and things like that. And so I started looking at the garden because I loved gardening. It was my getaway when I couldn't get away. It was my favorite thing. And I truly believed everyone in the world needed to have a garden too. And so I started looking at the garden and googling all kinds of, you know, garden related businesses. I found a way that you could, you know, grow, I think, 20 or $40,000 worth of garlic on your, on your property. I looked at ways you could preserve your harvest and sell those and all kinds of different, you know, means. Another one was like propagating plants and selling those plants. So I was doing the research on Google and YouTube and honestly, none of them seemed like a good fit for where I was. I was on a very small suburban lot in Houston and didn't have a ton of time or this skill set of like canning and preserving, all that kind of stuff. So I was still thinking. And my main thing that I was so good at in the garden was lettuce. And so I thought, you know, maybe I'll sell lettuce. Maybe I'll start to sell my lettuce harvest because they were so prolific. And I thought, you know, I can sell these things for like $5 a box. If I sell, I don't know, 20 boxes, that's $100. And, you know, I started trying to do the math, like, how many beds of lettuce would I need in order to make, say, $1,000 a week or every two weeks, something like that started to kind of make the math work. And I was like, I'm ready. So, so I went down to the county clerk and started like, wrote in my business name. And it was rooted garden goods. This was a name based on what my mom had taught me. Which was how to root plants. Early on, when I wanted to garden and had $0 to do so, she taught me the. The art of propagation, how I could take plants from her yard and put them in water or soil or sand, grow some roots on them, and then, boom, I had free plants. I love this idea. And it was the heart of what I wanted to teach with my business and do with my business. So I named it Rooted Garden Goods. And that meant I was going to sell my. My lettuce, my. My plants. I'd propagated, whatever. I was going to sell things for my garden, go home. So excited, started to get things ready to go. And I call up my friend Teresa. She was a homeschool mom with me, but also had a business. And I was asking her these details, like, should I have an S corp? Should I have a llc? What structure should I have for my new rooted garden goods business? And she's like, well, let's not talk about the structure yet. She's like, first of all, I don't know if the business concept is great. She was like, I don't really want to buy your lettuce. She's like, no offense, but I can go to the farmer's market and get great lettuce. She's like, but what I do want to know is how to grow that lettuce. I would love you to come teach me what you know about the garden. She was like, I don't know. I'm thinking of a concept, something like garden consulting. And that was like a light bulb moment. I can literally remember standing in the kitchen in my Houston house holding the cell phone. I think I was cooking at the time, and it was just an aha moment for me. Like, oh, my goodness, that would be so fun and so much easier than, like, washing pounds and pounds of lettuce and putting it into a box. Right? So I went back to the county clerk. You have to do this, actually, and you have to buy back the name. So I bought back Rooted Garden Goods. I think it was like, $25. And then I did it again. I put in a new name to be just Rooted Garden. So that's just what happens when you're trying to get this business started. And I will say this over and over in today's episode, but you don't have to get it perfect. You just have to get it going. I think that first trip down to the county clerk was so important because I put my mark in the sand and said, hey, I'm starting a business, even if I'M going to come back and change it in five days. I go home and I'm trying to figure out how to do this business thing. I don't do social media. I had just gotten a iPhone. I had had like a flip phone up until like 2014. So this girl was a Luddite at this point. Like I didn't text, I didn't have social media. I didn't even have a big like networking circle. I had my homeschool friends, my neighbor friends, and then like parents from some of my kids activities and then a small group of people we knew from church that was about it. So, so yeah, my cousin Laura Kelly, amazing woman that she is. She and her husband both are entrepreneurs and they live in Virginia. And she offered to come down to Houston and take photos for me to help me launch my book, launch my business, which was so great. So she came down that fall and we took loads of pictures all around my garden. And she took her husband's really nice camera because he's a photographer. And she said, all right, now you're set for Instagram. And I'm like, instagram? What? What? What does Instagram have to do with my business? I don't use that. So she started to show me a few gardening accounts and she's like, I really think this would be a great fit for you and for your business. Well, listen, I am so bad, I was so bad with tech at that point. She dropboxed me probably 200 beautiful images and I didn't use a single one on Instagram because I thought Instagram meant you had to take the photo inside of Instagram. That's what the definition was, right? Instant grammar. And that they would get mad at me. Or it was impossible to take like a really nice photo from Dropbox and put it on Instagram. So she did all that work. I did use the photos, I still use the photos for promotional things but poor thing, she did all that work with me and then I didn't at all utilize what she, what she created. So we get to October and I am on the bus with a, for a field trip with, with my daughter's class and we're going, I think we're going to like do a food pantry or something like that. And one of the moms I'm just meeting and she's like, hey, what do you do for a living? And I said, well, you know, actually I just started a business, it's a garden consulting business. And she's like, what? You can garden in Houston? She had just Moved from Colorado and her name's Michelle. And I'm like, oh, yeah, you can totally garden here. It's amazing. And she's like, oh, you're gonna have to come to my house and help me set up. So I charged her $25, went to her house, did a consultation, and then I proposed to put a garden together for her. So it was going to be like a 12 foot long raised bed, one foot wide, and I would plant it up for her for the fall. So she signed on and said yes. I can't remember how much I charged. I think it was like $500. Like it was a really, really good deal. So I go to Home Depot. Maybe it was Lowe's at the time. And I had never really. My husband was the one who bought and built all of our beds. So I start researching for ways I could build a bed and, and do it myself. Because I'm not really like the most carpenter, handy power tool kind of girl, if you know what I mean. So I found these framing angles. I still teach how to make raised beds this way. I bought framing angles, got some boards, loaded up my van. I had a minivan at the time, had a minivan for like 13 years. And these boards were 12ft long. And if you know a Honda Odyssey, you know that it's 12ft, just barely. So I first put the boards in, slid them in. I needed to close that back because I didn't have any way to like latch my, the back of my van, right? And it won't close. So what I do is I take the boards. I'm thinking, like, I'm really smart here, right? So I take the boards, slide them all the way up, and prop them on the dashboard so that I can get the very back of the wood inside the van. And, and then I close it down. Now, just as I push that, you know how you can force it, like it'll go electronically or you can just kind of give it a little, uh, and make it happen. Well, I gave it that. And just as I did, I heard pssh. And I was like, what was the pssh about? So I go around the front of my van and my entire windshield is shattered. Because the minute that I shut that back door, it put extra force on those 12 foot long boards and immediately cracked my windshield. So, yeah, I was starting off really strongly as an entrepreneur, drove home looking through the cracks, parked my van in the garage and did not tell my husband. I was so humiliated. I was already feeling very embarrassed and very self aware as I was Starting this business, not sure of myself and really not wanting to tell anybody what I was doing. So when I did that, I just felt like such a loser. So I made it through the night, went straight to the car repair place the next day, got my windshield fixed. I think it cost like, 350 bucks. And then went to do her garden. So I built the bed. I went and picked up soil. I was able to get soil at a wholesale price. So I bought it for, like, $5 a bag. And I could charge retail price like, like 10, $15 bag. So brought all that soil in my minivan to Michelle's house, put together the bed, filled it up with soil, and then I actually brought plants from my own garden. So I was growing all that salad, right? I thought I was going to be. I thought I was going to be selling that salad. So instead, I just plucked up the plants, brought them to Michelle's garden, and filled it up with lettuce. She loved it. She absolutely loved the project. And I came out, wrote me a check for over $500. And I was like, uh, I may have made a dollar on this project by the time I pay for all the materials and then pay for the repair of my windshield, but nonetheless, I took a picture of the check, I sent it to Jason, and I said, I just got paid to hang out in a garden, exaggerating a bit because I was doing quite a bit of labor. But at the same time, it was this wonderful, like, pinch me moment where I just got paid to garden, even if I broke my windshield through the process. So fast forward through October, November. I kept doing projects like that. And most of my contacts were people that were somehow connected to me in maybe one degree or another. So a fellow kindergartner mom, we were walking out of school one day, told her about my business. She said, oh, you got to come set one up for me. So I came, did the same kind of thing for her. A raised bed, soil, plants, all that kind of stuff. I had friends from my small group at church ask me to help them. I had some friends from my homeschool group have me come replant their garden or give them a consultation. Mom's from the PTO at my school. It was just, you know, these. These connections that I had in various places and people that were. That were interested in getting their garden, making their garden better, or just getting my help in the garden. And that continued all the way through October and November. I did a lot of word of mouth, but right around, I would say, the beginning of November was when I made things public, and it was actually by mistake. My cousin, who'd taken those photos, I think she was a little bitter that I wasn't posting, though, on Instagram. So she did a post on Facebook and tagged me and said, so excited about my cousin's new business, Rooted Garden. And I hadn't made a public announcement yet. I was doing this very quietly, like, under, you know, underground, not wanting to admit that I was going try to build my own business. And she called me out, you know, like, she tagged me. And those things show right up in your feed. So I immediately got texts and questions like, what is this? What's Rooted Garden? Tell us more. And so that kind of forced a public launch. So I sent an email. I don't know if this is even legal anymore. Probably wasn't even legal at the time, but I took all of my Gmail contacts, so everybody that was in my contact list in my email, and. And I sent them all a group email all at once. And I said, hey, I'm starting a. I love the people and I love the gardens of my city, and my new business combines the two of those. And I stated very boldly that I wanted to start 100 new gardens in our city that year. So that was it. That was my first public announcement. And like I said, my cousin pretty much forced me into it. So that allowed me to get a little bit of traction and reach out to those friends and get those small jobs. And each job, I would say I would make a couple hundred dollars on them. So I would charge for the consultation, and I slowly would increase that price. So I went from like $25 to $50, maybe 75. And then each of the things that I would provide for them or set up for them, I would make a little margin on that. So I found a source to get raised beds at, like, 25% off retail because I had a wholesale license. So I would get that raised bed sent to me. I would help them set it up, or I'd coach them through setting it up, and I would get to charge them retail. And they're paying just what they would pay, right, if they bought this on their own, only they got my help to select the bed and make sure they have a great product, you know, a great end result. So I could do that for beds, for plants, for soil, for trellises, all the different pieces and parts I could get at a cost break for myself as a business owner. And then I could charge the retail price and even a little bit more for the service of delivering it, setting it up, coaching them through the process. So even something as simple. And I remember like walking away from this project with my friend Seema, and I mean, she got a great deal. She paid exactly what she would have paid to, to go buy all those things herself. And instead she had my help to go source them and bring them to her. Um, so she paid exactly what she would have paid on her own, except she got a professional. I don't know if I was a professional at that point, breaking my windshield, but, you know, I was definitely someone who knew what I was doing, I'd done enough. And so she paid that price, I made money and she got a great end product. And it wasn't that hard. Like it was something I could gather during the day while my youngest was at preschool, deliver this maybe in the afternoon when, after I picked her up from school. And I was really getting into a cadence of this, My husband was super worried about me totally maxing out the weight on my minivan. We ran the numbers. I think every bag of soil weighs 40 pounds. And I don't remember, but like basically a minivan I think can carry. Just. We did the math. Like I could put in 27 bags of soil and that was it. So he's like, Nicole, 27 bags and then cut it off. Like, you cannot deliver any more soil after that. But this was just. It was such a nice little source of income. And every, you know, every week, every day, honestly, I would look at my bank account and it was just slowly growing. I wasn't like a millionaire or even a six figure business overnight, but my goodness, it literally felt like I had just unlocked something that was really, really magical, really easy to do, really fulfilling, and so good for the people who were buying it. Like they were getting a steal of a deal. So I kept doing that through the fall. And I would say that brought me to my first. I need to look at the numbers. But probably making my first, say, five to $10,000. We hit December and I knew it was gift giving season. So I was looking for ways that I could, you know, give gifts that would also help promote my business for the new year. So I first created these little salad planters. I went back to Home Depot, found these little steel containers, and I added drainage holes to them, filled them with soil, and then I planted them up with my lettuces from my garden. Still, using that first idea, I had to grow lettuce. Only this time I'm giving them the plants, not the harvest. So I created a Couple of different planters. I don't know if I did herb planter. I think everything I was doing at the time was salad, salad and more salad. And then I created a couple, like, gift cards and seed products that people could give teachers and family members, that kind of thing. So I promoted that through my email and then sharing it with friends, and I put it on Facebook and Instagram and, you know, I didn't, like, sell out or, you know, make tons and tons of money. But what I didn't realize was, like, I was literally seeding the success of my business for the new year, because this was almost free marketing. You know, it was almost marketing that made me money. So I would sell, say, six buckets of lettuce. One of my friends came and bought six buckets for all her kids, teachers. Well, that was, you know, first of all, her picking it up. She's telling her friends what she's buying for the teachers, that kind of thing. And she's got friends that could definitely be clients. And then each person that she delivers the garden to is also promoting my business, right? They now know about my business, and then they have this sitting on their desk, and other teachers and faculty see it. So it's just like the. The per. It was. I didn't realize it at the time how strategic it was, but it was so strategic for launching and growing my business into the new year. By this point, I had a place on my website, actually upgraded. I think I started with Blogger. Do y' all remember when Google had, like, a Blogger site? Probably before your time, but that's where I started my website, moved it over to Squarespace, and I had a little checkout where you could get a consult. And it was December, and my first, like, I don't know this person, stranger on the Internet purchase happened. And at that time, I think I was still charging 25 bucks on the Internet for the consult, and this one wonderful woman named Jenny bought it. So popped up on my computer, $25 consultation. She immediately sent me a personal email and said, hey, it's Jenny. I'm friends with so and so I just heard about you, and I would love to have a garden for my family, but I don't have a green thumb. So I've been looking for a service like yours. And reading her email was just like. It was like, I don't know, music to my ears, because I was just to hear someone say, I've been looking for a service like yours, right? So you have this idea for your business, and you think it's a good idea, but you're not sure that any other human being is going to think it's a good idea. And so to have this stranger on the Internet say, like, I've literally been looking for something like, this was such a point of affirmation for me. So went and met Jenny. She was the most wonderful human being. And. And I had never done a consultation for a stranger before, so I was really nervous. I printed out about 10 pages of color prints from my garden. So I went out, took a bunch of photos of my garden with my iPhone and then printed them out and then put them in, like, those covers that, you know, kids use in high school. It was high class, you know what I'm saying? Like, I was fancy, so I had those. I also brought a bucket of. I mean, a harvest of lettuce. So I wanted her to taste what the lettuce tasted like from my garden. And then I also brought a bucket. Don't laugh. I'll laugh for myself. Of soil. So I took a bucket of just native Houston soil to show her why I use raised beds. So I come to her front door, knock on the door, ring the doorbell. Beautiful home. This is in this really nice suburb that are not suburb, but part of Houston that's probably 15, 20 minutes from me. So ring the doorbell, and three people come to the door, and none of them are Jenny. And so she had been having, like a breakfast or whatever with friends, and these three really nice women all come out, and Jenny's like, hey, y', all, you have to meet Nicole. And I'm standing there with, like, a bucket of dirt, some random prints of my garden, and then this big bowl of lettuce, and I'm like, oh, hi. I'm so normal. Believe me, I'm just a really ordinary human being. Jenny was so gracious, introduced me to them, and told them what I was doing. And all three of them were like, oh, that's so cool. Will you please give me. Do you have a business card? Well, thankfully, I had made a business card, so ran to my van, the same old minivan with the windshield fixed this time, handed them my business card, and they all left. So did the consult with Jenny. Super fun. I talk about this in my first book, Kitchen Garden Revival, because she told me she wanted a garden that looked French. And I was like, what? I'm like, a garden that looks French? I don't even know what that means. So I figured it out, But I immediately realized I was working with people who were different from me that saw services and the garden very differently than I did. Not so much utilitarian somewhat, but also very ornamental and beautiful and part of their lifestyle. So just to hear someone, you know, say, have like an idea already of what she wanted her garden to feel and look like was an eye opening moment for me. So I ended up getting to do quite a few projects with Jenny. I think all in all, probably all together, our projects totaled like 2, 500, maybe even $3,000. I created some rolling planters for her. I replanted an area that was just ornamental. We had tons of fun together. She had four kids and they were all at a school together. So they would come home and look at the garden, play with the garden, play in the garden with me. It was just a wonderful first connection with a stranger on the Internet. So that brings us basically to the end of December. I actually didn't do Jenny's. Most of Jenny's garden until the new year. So I finished out December, very excited about my business. The buzz was growing. I was starting to meet new people. Just getting that order from the stranger on the Internet was a huge boost in my confidence. And I was ready to start January, head into January. And all three of those women, Stacy, Julie, and Ann, gave me a call. Actually, Ann's husband bought her a gift card for Christmas. Stacy bought a gift card for her husband, John. And Julie wanted me all to herself. So. So come in January. And it was time for me to fulfill all of that. So I got to meet with John, Stacy's husband. He already had a garden, but wanted me to completely overhaul it and make it better. Met with Ann. Her husband had gifted her the gift certificate. And so she wanted to turn a part of her yard completely over from ornamentals into a kitchen garden, but do it in ground, which was going to be a challenge for me. And then Julie really wanted to become a gardener that year. So what we did together is worked in gardens she'd already set up and revamped them, replanted them. And then she actually introduced me to this idea of a subscription model for the business. Because I went, I spent the day with her planting up the garden. And then as we finished, she said, now, when are you coming back? And I was like, never. Like, we're done. And she's like, no, no. Like, I really want to get this. I want to know how to do this long term. And so I want you to come back, say, every two weeks and coach me through the process. And I was like, okay. And she was going to pay me for the time and that was like another eye opening moment for me where I realized the garden industry is ready made for a subscription type of product, which is so wonderful and dependable when it comes to building a business. So I got to take care of Stacy and Ann and Julie and Jenny as well. All throughout January and February, my business was slowly gaining some traction. I did some work in my kids school garden and continued to try to do workshops and classes and things to spread the word. Jenny and Julie, as I was working in both their gardens, each of them individually, they're friends, obviously. And they looked at me and they said, hey, would you like our help? How can we help you spread the word and grow your business? Which, first of all, if you know an entrepreneur or a small business owner, cannot say more magical kind words to them than those words that they said to me. So I was like, of course I'll take your help. How about we do a party together? They love the idea. So we got Julie's garden really nice and ready and she offered to host a brunch. So they invited, I don't know, 40, 50 people. And we had about 25 people say, yes, I am not a cook. Let me preface it with that. But I promised that I would feed all these people brunch. Not just brunch, but garden to table brunch. I called my mom so excited. I talk about this in chapter eight of my book, Kitchen Garden Revival. I called my mom so thrilled, excited. And my mom's like, nicole, what are you doing? You don't know how to cook for 25 people. And I'm like, well, I'll figure it out. That's another rule about entrepreneurship, is everything can be figured out. Marie Forleo says that everything is figureoutable. So she said, well, I'm going to come help you. So she comes into town to help for the event. I bought loads of food from a local farm that I really respect in the area. They do super cool work with refugees and they have refugees grow in their farms and then they sell CSA shares and have a farmer's market to shell to sell all their harvest. So I was like, what a perfect business to support and a way to show what's growing locally. Right. And seasonally. So. So we did like a frittata. We did braised greens. We did, I think I did sweet potato waffles for the appetizer. We did like a grapefruit dessert with rosemary shortbread. I mean, it was fancy, y', all, and I was pretty proud. So we made this. Oh. And then A frittata, a beet green frittata. And my mom helped me. I think we had five cast iron frittatas going at once. Julie's kitchen was amazing. And we had all these people come and I thought my business was going to absolutely blow up after this event. I'm like 25 people in a room. They're all going to get a tour of Julie's garden. They're all going to eat seasonal food and like my business is just going to be off to the races and it's going to be hard to keep up. Right. I have to say, I just remember the night before I was trying to print out programs for the event. I had the worst printer. I'd use that for Jenny's right consult. And I'm trying to print these programs and I remember I could not get the printer to work. The printer ran out of ink. Then when it finally printed, it printed on the wrong side. Like one side was upside down. It was terrible. I think I was up until midnight trying to print these dumb things. And on it I also had like a list of how much things would cost, you know, to work with me. Different kind of gardens and things like that. Anyway, you know, behind the scenes you see the pretty party and you see everybody eating and having a great time. And what you don't see is the entrepreneur up until midnight, you know, sticking those programs into a printer that's not working while her kids and her husband are, you know, fast asleep. Uh, but that was me. So had the party and honestly, it was like everyone was like, oh, it's so fun. Thank you so much. And then it was like kind of crickets. I mean, I was expecting my phone to be like going off the hook and it just wasn't. Um, and one lesson I've learned from big events like that is it's a long tail effect. So it's not something sometimes you might have a blow up moment where it just is so big and you know, and you do have that really fast growth. But my experience has been more where you do an event like that and you expect the big explosion and the big, you know, the big impact. And that actually comes much slower. But it does come. And so that's what happened to me. Instead of getting called by all 25 people or even 10 people or even five people, I got called by two people. But those two people made all the difference. So one was Judy, that's Julie's neighbor, and the other was a wonderful woman named Lori. And so I went to Lori's House. And Lori was like, up until this point, I just worked in, like, one box at a time. Okay? So, like, all the friends I'd worked with, everyone I'd done projects for, we're talking one box, some soil and some plants. And when I walked into Lori's space, she had this gorgeous corner lot. And she was just a really refined woman. Her mother lived with her, her children had moved out. And she said, how about this whole area right here? And y', all, like, she. I mean, this was a. This was a big space in her yard. We're not talking, you know, one box here. And I just. I just tried to look confident. And I tried to act like it was totally normal for someone to give me an entire big piece of their very expensive property for a kitchen garden. And I was like, oh, it would be so gorgeous. I just went with it, right? And I started talking about where we could line it up. She had this really beautiful screen porch. And so I showed her where the garden could go. And she loved the vision and she signed on. And so I was on the hook, right, because up until then, I'd done these very easy DIY projects where I could either put them together or I could coach my client through putting them together. And this was going to be a significant project. She lived on a corner of a very busy neighbor, very busy street on her neighborhood. So many probably during the consult, 15 people walked by, just walking their dogs and stuff. She had a wrought iron fence on this corner lot. So everything I was about to do was going to be displayed for a very wealthy, well to do neighborhood that was just going to be watching this happen. And this was probably like my 10th or 15th project to this point. So I went home and started calling people. First of all, we needed a different size raised bed than I could get from just mail order places. So started trying to find the right size bed where I could get it from, then trying to find a landscaper that could install these beds for me and put this all together because it was going to be more complicated. And so I found a landscaper friend, actually I knew in my neighborhood. He was connected to a great company, so they agreed to put in the garden for me. I did find a supplier for the beds, and it all started to come together. So right around the middle of May, I got start to finish to watch this huge kitchen garden go in. And it was just so beautiful. And I was so proud. I mean, it was picture perfect. And everyone walking by was just like wowed by it. So that was a moment Where I was like, okay, I can do bigger projects and I'm ready to do. So I left out an important part I should have said back in March. I was still doing those small projects and my husband was actually going to San Diego for a business trip and my mom and dad were going to come keep the kids. So I had a chance to go with them. And I thought, I bet there's businesses kind of like mine out in California because they're like way ahead of us in terms of gardening, home gardening. So I started calling around, trying to find some garden businesses that would meet with me. And most people hung up the phone or just didn't take my call. But two people did and allowed me to go and meet with them personally. So that was really amazing. I got to pay them for their time and just meet and talk with them, get their advice, hear their experience. And that fast forwarded me so much in my business to talk to professionals who had been doing this. One of them had been in the business for 10 years, one of them had been in the business for, I think over five. So they got to tell me the mistakes they made, ways they'd, you know, wasted money, lost money, barriers to entry. Just even an hour with them literally probably gave me a six month to a year edge in my business. And if you look at the work I was doing, like January to March versus April, May forward, it's hugely different. And I owe so much of that to that trip to San Diego. So thank you to those mentors that let me talk to them and get their advice. I truly appreciate it. And to everybody who didn't return my call, that's okay. So then we did Lori's garden and I got to start working with Judy as well. So Judy lived right next to Julie and she had this huge garden space and it was just completely not used. It was all stone garden. And so I started working with her. And she, even more than Julie, she went into garden with me weekly. So I would go out to her garden space, plant it up with her and talk and work. And we did that every week together. And she was just such a fantastic human being. So fun to talk with and so fun to garden with. And we had some really amazing conversations and connections and we did it all while we were surrounded by plants in her garden. So that was another moment of just fulfillment, of just like, gosh, I have a dream job and I may be dirty right now, but I just got paid to hang out with a really cool human being and to garden with her. So that Brings us to May. I finished Lori's garden. And I'm not kidding when I say, that night I got home, I was sitting with my kids, and I got a phone call at 8:30. And I don't take phone calls at 8:30. I rarely take phone calls. Have you heard this joke? Like, the phone now it's like, why is my Instagram machine ringing? You know what I mean? Um, this thing is actually supposed to. To be a telephone. No. So anyway, I let it go to voicemail, as I tend to do, and listen to the voicemail. And it was this wonderful man named Andrew. Um, and he is like, hey, I'm Andrew. I just met Lori's. One of my friends. She showed me pictures of her garden tonight at a. They were at like, some kind of. They were part of a charity that they worked together on. For. On a board. And so they're at the board meeting for the charity, and he's like, I saw this garden. I loved it. It was amazing. And I want you to come do a consult for me. So call Andrew, go meet up with him. And this guy lives in a different part of town than I've ever been in. And I'm like, wow, this is a very unique, special part of Houston. And also he was a very special part of Houston, which I didn't know. I was in my little homeschooling neighborhood group. I didn't know that the entrepreneurship and the land and the properties that were in the middle of Houston when I started my business. So I walk into this property and he hands me like, I think he hands me a hundred dollar bill for the consult. And he's like, work your magic. What do you want to do in this space? And he had a trampoline there for his girls, who are all now grown teenagers. And he's like, let's make this whole space a garden. He's like, and I think this space should probably be like a stone garden. Can you do a stone garden? And he's like, and also, I'm very devout Catholic, so if you can bring that into the space as well, that'd be great. And he just, like, trusted me so much. And then he says, and also, I love what you're doing as an entrepreneur. So, you know, we have a group of interns at our. At my agency or his office or whatever. And he's like, so when you're done with the garden, I want to do a party in the garden. And I want you to teach all the interns how to start their own business. And I'M like, nice to meet you too. That sounds really doable. Okay, I'll get right to work. So I remember calling my mom. My mom's like, what are you doing? Like a stone garden. Seriously. And I remember everything is figureoutable. So I just started calling, just like I did for Lori's garden. And I found first I called the contractor for his house because he had a lot of stonework in his yard, in his home already. So I call the contractor, I'm like, hey, who did the stonework on your house? And then I call the stonework guy and I say, hey, will you do a garden for me? So he says, yes. And then we get to work on the design and the timing and all those kinds of things. And it was happening. So it was just the beginning of summer. My kids are now out of school. So I had been working from like 8 to 12 every day. So now I'm sending them, you know, for half a day or part of the day to go to camps and things like that so I can get this garden done. So I bring them to camp, head over to Andrew's, and we start the pull out and the clean out part of the garden, getting ready to set it up. It's going to be the biggest project I've ever done. And through the conversation, it was a really rainy day and the landscapers were pulling out, clearing the grass and everything. So Andrew and his wife invited me inside. I get inside and we're talking and they're asking about my husband Jason, and our family. And I tell them that Jason works at MD Anderson Cancer center and that he works on rare cancers for drug discovery. So we go through the day and make a lot of progress with the garden. Things are moving along. And I get another late night call from Andrew, which is strange. And again, I let it go to voicemail and picked it up, called him back the next day and he says, I really would like to talk to your husband because I've just been diagnosed with a rare cancer. And it was just like a stop in your tracks kind of moment. So Andrew had been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. And it was right around the time that he was starting to be sick and feel sick that he called me for the garden consult. And it was another aha moment for me because, you know, for someone who's facing a really serious disease like that and the potential of dying to want to get the thing that you can do, to want you to create something for them in those days that may be their last days, it was really Sobering and comforting and also challenging at the same time. It felt hard to know that I'm working with someone who is going to be going through treatment and lots of hard times and also just really wanting to over deliver for him because these were going to be hard days for him and his family. So we wanted to talk to Jason because he wanted to hear about drugs that they were working on and things that were coming up in terms of discovery because he didn't have a lot of choices for treatment. So that was a turning point for me and a moment where I was like, if I can do something for a living that someone facing mortality wants to buy and wants to include in their life when their life may almost be over, then I want to do this for the rest of my life. And that moment was just. It was so clarifying for me. And for it to happen, you know, nine months into my business was. Was just crazy timing. And I'm so thankful for Andrew and for Shanna. So we got the garden done. It was crazy. It's a circular garden, and I did it in three parts because Andrew's such a strong Catholic and had such big faith. So it was to imitate the Trinity, the Father, Son and Holy Ghost. And then he loved that garden. He would go out there, all that. He would send me pictures and texts, and he went on trips to find holy water, you know, for healing. And he would come down to. One day I was in the garden working, and he came down with a big hat on, you know, protecting himself from the sun. And he had this big bucket of water, and he said, this is holy water I'm putting in my garden, you know, for my harvest and things like that. So he really saw the garden as part of his. His healing journey. And that was. It was just really meaningful to get to do that project with him. So that got me through June, and it was challenging. But by the end of June, we had that party that he wanted to have. He was in the middle of treatment at the time. And my cousin came down, Laura and Eric, and we hosted a workshop for his interns. So we did a big photo shoot of him and his daughters and his wife in the garden. And then they had food, and we stayed inside their living room and. And I taught all these girls how to start their own business using a passion that they have. And so during the time, it was very workshop like. I think his daughter created like a Pimp My Jeep or something like that. She started like a jeep business and another one started a babysitter platform it was so fun, and it was just a really meaningful day. And Andrew was there. Even though he was going through treatment, he was there with us throughout the whole day. So. So that was the end of June, and after that, I needed a little break. I forgot to throw in that. That same landscaper that I got to help me with Lori's garden. When he came and started seeing what I was doing, he said, oh, you do vegetable gardening? I'm like, yeah, it's pretty. That's my thing. That's my only thing. And he said, would you be willing to do a really big garden? This was before I met Andrew. And it was like, literally the day that he was measuring for me at Lori's. And I said, yeah, of course I'd be willing to do a really big garden. He's like, would you be willing to do Johnny Carrabba's garden? And I'm like, who's Johnny Carrabba again? Remember, like, I was homeschooling Mom. Like, zero. Pop culture, zero. Just culture. Zero culture culture. Like, I was teaching my kids, like, about, you know, the Renaissance and memorizing timelines and multiplication tables. So Johnny Carrabba, if you haven't heard of him, he is a famous restaurateer, and he started Carrabba's restaurant. He now has a whole line of restaurants. But Carrabba's is, like a nationwide franchise now, and he lives in Houston, and he actually was just right down the street from Andrew. So the landscaper, they ran their landscape at this beautiful big home, and they had, like, 600 square feet of vegetable garden that the landscaper did not enjoy tending. And so he's like, hey, I can introduce you, and you could be the person who takes care of the vegetable garden. We'll take care of the rest of the landscape. And I'm like, sounds like a deal to me. So I'm only four or five months into my business, and I'm sitting in Johnny Carrabba's kitchen with his assistant and his wife and these landscapers, and I'm literally in a T shirt. I don't know. I think my shoes were, like, 4 years old. And they're like, hey, this is Nicole Burke, and she's going to run your vegetable garden. I don't know if he even looked my way, but that was one of my jobs for the spring. So I did start that in April. And if you think about it, you know, if you trace it back, like that brunch that I had, right, the rooted garden brunch, even though it Wasn't like, this immediate huge impact where I was, you know, serving hundreds of clients. Lori was there, right? And Lori called me. And by doing Lori's project, I met the landscaping company. And by meeting the landscaping company, the landscaping company introduced me to Johnny Carrabba. And then by working in Lori's garden, Lori then introduced me to Andrew. And I really started to figure this whole thing out of word of mouth and how powerful it is and how you don't really need to have a dozen, even 10, even five, great clients to start a business. You just need one. You just need one. And you'll see as I finish out the year, how this all ties back to that rooted garden brunch. So finish up June, July. I pretty much took a break. I had my four kids, and my whole point of having a business was to be home with my kids. So I didn't push myself. In July, we traveled. We just had a great summer. I think that was the year. Yeah, it was. We went to the Grand Canyon together, and I got inspired again by just seeing how plants grow in the wild. And, yeah, I just got to enjoy being a mom and not having to work. And so that was really amazing to know. Like, oh, I just had a fantastic June. I think my company made, I don't know, $40,000 or so, maybe more that month of June. And then I got to go be with my family in July. So fast forward to August, and the word of mouth kept rolling. So the landscape company that referred me to Carrabba's, they then tell me about this school called the Joy School. And it's a school for special needs students who learn differently, have different learning needs, and they wanted me to create a vegetable garden for them. And then Lori calls me and says, hey, when you come back to do a coaching session, I want you to introduce you to my friend Rena. So go to Lori's. Meet Rena. She's an avid gardener, but she wants to redo her garden and go to the Joy School. And sure enough, they're ready to start a garden as well. So, boom, it's August. My kids are going back to school, and I already have these two fantastic garden projects to do. And now I have Lori's garden and Andrew's garden under my belt. So I'm feeling way more confident on big projects and, you know, really, like, excited about taking on these bigger things. So for Rena, we did this keyhole garden, which was such a cool concept. So it was a big U shape with one in the middle, and she's an avid gardener. She had plants all over her house and her yard. And so she was just a delight to get to work with. Cause she was going to use it and, and make the most of every single thing we planted. And then the Joy school was so fun to get to work with because I got to work with students and teachers. They had this teacher who loved, loved, loved the garden and was so excited to have a true, really nice, professionally built raised bed garden for her students. So we did one long bed, that's the herb bed. And then we did another long bed that was going to be all the vegetables. And I found a new carpenter, actually a company in Houston that made beds. And I went and met with this guy and I was like, hey, can you make me some raised beds? And so they said yes. We didn't end up working together for a super long time because the projects were too custom for me, for them, for me. But they did build those two projects and it was awesome. So my August was great. I want to say my company made probably almost 20k, maybe more than 20k in August. My kids are back in school by this point. I'm getting a routine. My daughter's still in preschool, so going 8 to 12. So I was working everything between those hours. I would do consultations or finish up an install, do a planting and then go pick up Elaine, my youngest, at noon, maybe head out, do a couple more errands that afternoon and then start all over the next day. So October. In October, I got to meet some more new clients, also through word of mouth. And one of them was an architect. And so Julie, if you remember her, she was my first client who really wanted me to coach her. She introduced me to her brother. So I worked in her brother and sister in law's garden. They already had a garden set up, but I ended up tending and planting it month by month. And they introduced me to their architect. So Ryan Gordon is his name, fantastic architect in Houston. And I got to create a garden for him. And an architect is a really good contact to have if you are doing gardens, because he has some great clients, right? And so he started spreading the word and sharing about the garden I was creating for him. And soon I got called by several of his clients. One of them was building a new home and had this gorgeous brick, this plan for three brick kitchen garden beds. So I got to go meet her and plant up those gardens for her. And by this point I'd gotten a little bit more savvy. This was late October. I started having these Cards I would bring every time I go on a consult, and it would give someone $50 off a consult if they shared it with friends and family. So I brought this to the consultation. I said, hey, if you have any friends that you know would love to garden, I would love for you to share these consult cards with them. And so she was a great referral and immediately gave it to several of her friends. And one was named Risa. And Risa gave me a call in November, and this is really another podcast episode, because her garden happened the following year. But that was going to be the beginning of a even bigger year. Two for me, for my business, was that moment of taking care of Ryan's garden and then taking care of Ryan's client's garden. I also had my first, like, Instagram referral in the fall. Her name was Sandra, and she was an Instagrammer. She was a mom, and she had connected with me through a client and then just been following me on Instagram for a while. This was back in the days, the good old days when Instagram was photos only. And so all you had to do was, you know, take a picture of something you'd made and put it on there, and boom, you had a post. It was very simple in those days. And for me, Instagram was a dream come true because I didn't have really time to sit and blog. I wish, wish, wish I could go back in time and have videos and blog posts for all the work I was doing, because it was incredible seeing it firsthand. But I didn't record it because I just. I was on the go. I was running, I was doing a garden, picking up my daughter, going back, picking up the rest of my kids, going home, heading to soccer, making dinner, you know, just one day after the other. But I would use Instagram, and Sandra was kind of inspired, I guess, to work with me through Instagram, and we got to do these beautiful gardens together. Three beds. And that was when I started using a different carpenter. This was one of my friends at school. Her husband, get this. He's a PhD physicist at MD Anderson Cancer Center. And Kim's her name. She's a photographer, too. And she said, you know, I think my husband would be willing to build the beds for you. He loves carpentry work, and he does it to, like, de stress after work and stuff. I'm like, are you kidding? The dude's a physicist? And she's like, yeah, he loves it, and he loves what you're doing. So he built the beds for Ryan and for Sandra. And for a couple of other clients that year, and then went on to build for me for the next few years as well. So I was slowly kind of building my system. I had gone from a year prior ordering stuff off the Internet and smashing the windshield in my car suddenly, to having a physicist deliver these beautiful, literally handcrafted raised beds to my clients. And all I had to do was walk out there and tell them where to put them down on the ground. So in one year, things had really turned around, from me driving the soil bags and packing up the plants in the back of my van to suddenly getting to do the parts I enjoyed the most about the business was talking to clients, placing the plants, and helping my clients be sure that they had success in the garden. So that's how I pretty much ended up the year. By November, the company had made over $100,000 just in 2016, and it wasn't even Christmas yet. So I did a really dumb thing. Not dumb. But I decided in December, instead of selling salad garden, little garden buckets and things, that that was too much for me to do. And instead, I would make wreaths, holiday wreaths. So I used my wholesale account, went and bought some flowers and wreath forms from a local florist place. And in November, I made some wreaths, and I thought, oh, this will be fun to do, you know, using my wholesale account and something different for the holidays. So I built, made a wreath for myself and took a picture of it posted on Instagram and a company called Better Homes and Gardens. You may or may not have heard of them. They reposted my wreath, and I think they said, can't stop staring at this wreath by rooted garden. And I was like, oh, my gosh, I've been doing these gorgeous gardens, like, $40,000 gardens, and I have to post, you know, $100 wreath for better Homes and Gardens to repost me. What is life? Anyway, I realized I'd kind of hit on something, and so I did keep showing the wreaths, and so many of my clients wanted one. So I found myself in the middle of December. My entire dining room was covered with about 30 wreath forms, and I was making wreaths to deliver to all my clients. And if you've read the E. Myth Revisited, it's a great book about entrepreneurship, and it teaches you to not add new products, that every time you add a new product, you've just added a whole new system, a whole new, you know, host of problems, challenges, and so not to do that lightly. Well, I had not read that book in 2016. And so I was like, oh yes, let's add wreaths to the product list. So anyway, instead of booking my business for 2017, I was running around town delivering wreaths. Super fun to do, but never did it again. And really not that profitable because all of the material for those wreaths is really pricey. And I didn't have the guts to charge what those wreaths were worth, which is more like $250 or $300 a piece. Anyway, despite that, I didn't lose any money on the wreaths and I finished the year with I think the total was close to or over $120,000 in gross revenue. And I got to keep a good bit of that. So a lot of that goes to pay for materials and the raised beds and the plants and the soil and the labor. But on each of those projects, just like I'd done in that very first few months, I got to make a little bit of margin. So every time we delivered a raised bed, every time I bought a plant and sold a plant, I got to keep a little bit of each of those things. So I got to charge for my time as a consultant. But then I also got to charge for a little bit on each and every one of those products. And this added up to a really good, nice salary for me, especially considering the fact that I was working part time. So keep in mind, I took almost the whole month of July off and I worked from basically 8 to 12 every day and then just did a little bit in the afternoon and the evening. So I had made my dream come true. I got to be with my four kids, I got to bring them to school every day, pick them up from school every day. I got to be with my preschooler in the afternoon. I had gotten to create not 100 gardens, I didn't quite hit my goal, but dozens of new gardens around my city. I definitely made $18,000. So I got to pay for that private school tuition and I got to keep some of that money for myself. So it was crazy to go from working for other people and being an employee to suddenly having my own business. And looking back on that year is so special to me. All the people who trusted me and gave me a chance when I was really a nobody and was just kind of a self proclaimed garden professional. Honestly, I just look back at Julie and Jenny and Judy and Lori and Andrew and, and the Carrabba's and the landscape company and all of them and I have so much gratitude for their trust in me and for giving me a Chance. And it changed my life, really. It's like, yeah, it's a. It's a story that I will keep telling forever because it really is. It started from nothing and grew into something in a very short period of time. And I would say if there's one takeaway I would share with you from my story, you hopefully have a lot, but one is just, you know, wake up and do it. Next step. If you, you know, if you took apart any one of those moments in my story and just isolated into one day, it would look like I was a total best, you know, because I was. I was missing things. I was late for things. I was doing things the wrong way. I was making tons of mistakes, but I just didn't quit. I just kept going. And every opportunity that came my way, I said yes to it. Now, I don't say yes to every opportunity now, but in that first year, if someone wanted me to do something with them and they were willing to pay me for it, I did it. And I learned so much so quickly because of that. So that's it. That's my story. 15 months. $450. I didn't tell you about that story, but Elaine, when I signed her up for preschool, I had signed up to go to this really great school called the B school. And I paid 450 for the deposit, and then I pulled her from that school so they could all go to the same school. And the B school was so nice and sent me that deposit back. So I used that deposit to start my business with $450. And I've never taken money from my family's bank account since. So that 450 was it. And a year, 15 months later, my company had made over $120,000. You tell me another way you can invest money like that and get a return and create beautiful things like a garden for people anywhere else. I can't believe it's true. Thank you so much for listening to my story. If this inspires you, I would love to hear about it. You can send me a DM on Instagram or an email. And if you are a gardener and this story excites you and makes you want to create a story like this of your own, then you can do this. If I can do this, you can do it, too. So come and check out our gardenary certification program. I teach gardeners how to do this exact same thing all around the country and across the world. I've taught consultants who started with zero just like me, and they've had a business now for over five years. 95% of small businesses fail in the first five years and I've helped business owners stay alive for five years. I've also taught business owners that now make over six figures a year as well. So you could be Next you can check out the Garden Coach Business Kickstart. It is a free event where I introduce you to the garden coach industry. You can find out more about that@gardenary.com and see if we have a kickstart starting soon. Or you can just go there to check out more about our consulting service and and see if it's a fit for you. And if you're listening to this and you are a gardener who wants help or someone who doesn't know how to garden yet and you would have loved to hire me just like Jenny did, then you can find a Gardenary consultant near you by going to gardenary.com we have a little tab at the top where you click find a consultant and boom. You can fill out a form and we will match you with a consultant just like me right where you live. I want to thank you so much for being part of the Grow youw Self podcast and also for being part of the Gardenary story. You're important. As important to us as Andrew and Julie and Judy and Jenny. You being here makes a huge difference and means that the garden is going to become part of more people's lives simply by you listening and watching. So thank you and I'll see you next time. Thanks so much for listening to the Grow youw Saw podcast. You can keep listening anywhere. You love getting your podcast delivered on Apple podcasts, on Spotify, iHeartRadio, you name it, we are there for you. And if you want to read the notes and get our free resources to help you grow more, you can go to gardenary.com podcast.