Kelly Perry - 00:00 - You are listening to the Team Flower podcast where we talk about flowers with the people who dedicate their lives  to sharing them with the world.  We believe that your work with flowers matters and we're cheering you on.  Hi, my name is Kelly, and today we're talking with Shean Strong. He fell into flowers a few years ago while studying biomechanics in college. Since discovering the love for doing things he hasn't looked back. Shean is located in Atlanta, Georgia, where he also hosts workshops each year. To learn more, you can visit his website, sheanstrong.com, and follow him on Instagram @sheanstrong. In this episode, we're talking about the power of flowers in changing the ambiance of an entire room. Shean is sharing about his culturally rich background and how that shaped his floral design. We're also talking of few simple fixes designers can make to increase the visual appeal of their arrangements. We'll learn the ins and outs of connecting with other businesses in your community and using those connections to successfully conduct a pop-up shop.  It's all right here on  the Team Flower podcast. This podcast is brought to you by Team Flower. Team Flower is an online learning community whether you're a professional farmer, florist who's getting started, or just love flowers. Shean, it's great to have you here on the Team Flower podcast today. 

Shean Strong - 01:27 - Thank you.

Kelly Perry - 01:28 - Welcome. 

Shean Strong - 01:29 - I'm so excited to be here. Thank you very much.

Kelly Perry - 01:34 - Well, you have such a beautiful style. We would love to know a little bit about your philosophy with flowers. What is it about flowers that's your jam? What makes you really happy? Just tell us a little bit about that and I'm sure we'll learn about you kind of in the process of that because flowers always help us -- I feel like they're such a great way to get to know people, what they picked and what they're drawn to. It's a reflection of the people who pick them and who makes them.

Shean Strong - 02:07 - I completely agree with that. You know, I think a lot of the times I don't think we notice flowers. They're part of our everyday life. They're there for our celebrations. They're there for funerals and weddings, and I truly believe that flowers change an environment. If it's a gift or you have them your living room or for a wedding, it changes the whole entire atmosphere.  Kind of in the same way that music sets a tone for an event. I kind of feel like flowers are the same thing. Like for instance, fritilarria -- I feel like it's such a whispering kind of flower, whereas like a peony is more -- I don't know -- like apractic and kind of like demands your attention. So I kind of think that flowers have their own voice and I like to make sure that I'm highlighting that voice and kind of letting them do their own thing.

Kelly Perry - 03:00 - I love that. What a fun visual picture of like the flower choir.

Shean Strong - 03:00 - I feel crazy. You know I feel crazy talking like that, but--

Kelly Perry - 03:08 - I love that. I think that that is such a fun way to look at it and I could totally visualize.

Shean Strong - 03:08 - You get it, right?

Kelly Perry - 03:16 - Totally.  I totally get it. I see the whisper, I see the opera, the whole thing. And I have this little room that was like a guest room and my sister just returned home. She's been in Nepal for several months and so she's kind of in this little transition. So she was staying in this guest room for just a couple of weeks, and she's moved out, all that kind of stuff in the guestroom just feels so blah -- you know  -- whatever.

Shean Strong - 03:16 - Yeah, it feels empty.

Kelly Perry - 03:16 - Yeah, it feels so empty. And so I picked daffodils the other day and put something in there. And now every time I walk by that room I'm like--

Shean Strong - 03:16 - It changes it. It does.

Kelly Perry - 03:16 - "Everything's okay in there.  Yeah, it's okay."

Shean Strong - 03:16 - I grabbed some dogwood the other day and I just put them in my living room, like on the mantel. And I was like, "This has changed the whole entire place." So I think there's some validity in that. Putting flowers in a spot, it just changes the environment.

Kelly Perry - 04:07 - It's the same thing with people like we can walk into a room and like I think about whenever we deliver the bouquet to the bride and we get to go into that place where even her -- like that's a sacred space. It's a sacred room and we have this honor of being a part of that and bringing those flowers into that space. And I just always imagine like whenever it's Saturday and I know everybody -- I know weddings happen on other days too, but just on Saturday, I always find myself thinking about like all the flower people all over the world that are going into these sacred spaces. And just thinking about like the piece that we can bring to something. You know they're feeling nervous or... 

Shean Strong - 05:02 - It's a humbling moment for me that someone trusts me to make their bouquet and to design their flowers. I mean when you look at, I guess, the pictures of a wedding that's like hung in a home, majority of the time it's the picture of the bouquet. It's the picture of them holding their flowers with their husband or their spouse, whoever it might be. That's such a great feeling knowing that they want to have my flowers hung in their home in memory. So I truly, I guess, respect and revere that moment that I have with the bride. They're trusting me with something so intimate. 

Kelly Perry - 05:32 - Yeah, just a reminder just to --  because things can be so -- I mean they can be crazy town right before we walk into the room.

Shean Strong - 05:41 - Look, we're over here talking like weddings are so easy and like, "Oh, they're so beautiful." I mean they are, but yeah, weddings can be crazy. They're all over the place. So I try to make sure that I set some time aside and just have a moment with the bride, you know?

Kelly Perry - 05:41 - Yeah. That bouquet couldn't just roll down a hill, right?

Shean Strong - 05:59 - Oh, my gosh. My heart just started racing for whoever is having a wedding this weekend. I just got so nervous for them.

Kelly Perry - 06:03 - That's so funny. No, it is. It's one of those things where-- you know, I kind of had this burnout moment with flowers where I just did too many and really was struggling with it. And just instantly I would -- I don't know if there's anybody listening who might be in this place here or feels this way, but if you are just know it's okay and you'll come out again. I've come out. There's hope. But I would go into just into a wedding day and everybody's running around and all the vendors are running around, and the weather -- are we in, are we out? The tent -- it's falling out.  There's this huge yucky water spot on it. What are we going to do about it? There's all these things that can happen and I would just find myself in those places like unable to just settle my anxious heart because there's so much adrenaline floating around in the space. And I just remember thinking like, "Okay, this job --how is this sustainable? How can I do this?"

Shean Strong - 06:03 - It's exhausting.

Kelly Perry - 07:18 - Yeah.  Like I need to be able to walk into the situations like peacefully and to not be affected by all the different emotions that are going in around and all those kinds of things. So anyway, my practice is breathing. I learned how to breathe deep inside my gut.

Shean Strong - 07:18 - I like that.  Because you're not going to get much done if you hold your breath for too long. You're going to pass out and that's not a good thing.

Kelly Perry - 07:18 - You can feel it. You can actually physically feel like how your breath changes.  It's crazy. Anyway, all that aside, you've been exposed to a whole bunch of different cultures, like all over the world. We just wanted to talk a little bit about that. Tell us what are these cultures. How have they influenced your work, your design? Tell us what are flowers like in another part of the world? How does that affect what you do, all those kinds of things? 

Shean Strong - 08:06 - So my dad was a military, so I had the privilege of growing up all over the place. We lived in Japan, we lived in Europe, we lived all over the US. So I was constantly moving around and I think from moving around constantly I learned that culture -- I guess a person's culture is very important to them. Whether it be just a community culture or whether it be a more global kind of culture, it's important. I try to make sure that I can represent that with my clients. I really felt like it helped me kind of see a bigger scope and design as opposed to I'm just kind of having a narrow focus on what I think is designed. Kind of opening myself up a little bit more to what's possible, I guess.  I know that sounds kind of cliche or whatever, but I really feel like opening myself up and experiencing different cultures, different people and the way they live and the way they dress and the way they talk and the way they handle certain things kind of shaped who I am.  I think that it's allowed me to connect with a story with somebody else because Iike you said, I've been all over the place and I have countless stories I can kind of connect with somebody with a similar experience. So I think that's kind of helped me build trust with my clients and yeah -- I don't know, I just feel like that's kind of shaped my design because I'm in love with so many different aspects of different cultures, whether it be Europeans or Asians or whatever it might be.  I'm just obsessed with learning and how I can take that and bring it to my designs. So yeah, it's been pretty cool. It's been pretty awesome. 

Kelly Perry - 09:38 - What are your favorite places that you lived? 

Shean Strong - 09:43 - Japan was phenomenal. I remember living there, it was-- I remember my mom just letting us run the streets. That sounds crazy, but there's hardly any crime over there, so my mom trusts us to do stuff. I was probably like 13 or so and I just remember being able to go to the city and walking around and my mom having no problem with that. And my mom's a pretty guarded person. She wants to make sure I'm always doing right and makes sure I'm protected and all that kind of stuff, but she kind of let her guard down there because she kind of knew the culture a little bit. But, yeah, Japan was wonderful. I love anytime I get to go to Europe, I just am constantly inspired by art and the beautiful architecture. I don't think I have one specific spot that I'm obsessed with, but I think that each place is unique in its own little bit. 

Kelly Perry - 10:38 - Well, that's encouraging. I would really love to go to Japan some day.

Shean Strong - 10:38 - Oh, my gosh. Seriously, seriously it would be awesome. 

Kelly Perry - 10:44 - Yeah. I had an uncle who traveled there quite a lot and he was really a flower lover and he actually painted flowers and all kinds of different things. But he spent a lot of time in Japan and sometimes I just wonder where did he walk and what did he do? It's one of those places where definitely there's a language barrier there for me. I can hop on a plane and go to England and the culture is very different, but I feel like "Okay, I can figure out what these different things mean." Like 'queue', l know that's not like what we would call it here, but sort of like understanding contextually what's happening.

Shean Strong - 11:21 - Yeah, you can use context clues to figure out what's going on, whereas when they're using characters in an Asian country, it's like, "I have no idea what that says."

Kelly Perry - 11:21 - Yeah,  so I'm a little bit intimidated. I have to be honest. But it would be fun if there was somebody like you who's been to Japan before that could lead us there. 

Shean Strong - 11:21 - For sure. Look, sign me up for a trip. Let's do this. We'll have a workshop over there. It'll be beautiful.

Kelly Perry - 11:21 - That would be so fun. So many cool flowers over there that came out of Japan. I'm just always so impressed by the excellent things.

Shean Strong - 11:21 - Their varieties are insane.

Kelly Perry - 11:21 - Yeah, just their passion for breeding flowers and making new flowers, making them bigger. And I think it's so cool and so admirable.  I love that. Speaking of really cool flowers, so for Valentine's Day you probably maybe had some Japanese sweet peas for Valentine's Day. 

Shean Strong - 11:21 - Yeah, absolutely.

Kelly Perry - 11:21 - Well, you had a pop-up at J. Crew at Ponce City market in Atlanta. If you aren't familiar with that, it's a very popular shopping, dining venue for locals and visitors to Atlanta. Tell us a little bit about your pop-up and how it went. Any advice that you might have for somebody who's maybe in a different city or town or something like that who's like, "Oh, I'm kind of interested in this concept, but I'm not sure how to go about it or what I would do." What would you say to them? 

Shean Strong - 12:41 - Like you said, Ponce City is a really cool little spot, really popular place. More specifically, there's a store in there called Citizen Supply. It's like a community-based space where the owner kind of houses local artisans. Like for instance, a friend of mine -- yeah, it's a really cool spot. My friend Libby has an incredible plant shop in there called The Victorian and they just sell beautiful plants, and there's another place that sells leather goods. So just that whole vibe --  to be a part of that was really, really cool. But they support this community of designers and local artists. So I taught several workshops in that spot and that's kind of how our relationship grew -- kind of like being able to do that when it can be J. Crew. J. Crew is actually in Ponce City market.  I went in there and I talked to the manager, and I know that they have events going on every now and again. And I was like, "Hey, this is my information. I'd love to do a pop-up sometime soon." And then it was just a couple months prior to Valentine's Day and they reached out to me and they're like, "Hey, what are you doing these days?" And I was like, "I wasn't planning on doing anything, but sure, let's do something." So it kind of worked out -- kind of last minute kind of thing. About a month out we started planning and getting stuff organized, and it was awesome. It turned out really, really great and the people responded well to it. So it was a fun little time. 

Kelly Perry - 14:02 - I love that. 

Shean Strong - 14:02 - Yeah, it was great.

Spaeker 1: - 14:05 - Tell us about your bouquet wrapping. How do you wrap them?  

Shean Strong - 14:10 - Yeah, for sure.  it's really cool. So I like to make sure that I was in a location where people are going to be able to see me kind of wrapping and making bouquets. You know that kind of nostalgic feeling of like -- I don't know -- I picture like the old school, like little boys selling flowers on the side of the road kind of thing. So while people were shopping and they would stop by and they're just -- you know, again, flowers change an environment. People are drawn to them. So they were kind of talking about them a little bit and you know, they will point to this, "What is this?", and ask me questions. And so I was in a space where I was able to talk to them and engage with them, and I was able to pick some flowers out -- which ones would you like in a bouquet?  And they were like, "Oh, you're selling these." I was like, "Yeah." So they would pick their own flowers and they would shop and then I'd wrap them in Brown paper packaging. And then J. Crew actually had some really cool ribbon. I brought twine. I'm pretty minimal when it comes to that kind of stuff. But J. Crew had this ribbon that had J. Crew written all over it -- really small font. So I was like, "Do you mind if I use that?"  They're like totally cool. So I wrapped the bouquets in the J. Crew ribbon, and we used some different varieties of flowers.  We used hellebores, ranunculus, and peonies and all these kinds of luxury flowers that people don't get often.  They're not your standard red roses. They're going to be a little bit more of novelty kind of flowers.  And so we wrapped them together and then people would walk out, and then having that little J. Crew ribbon on it, people knew where to come and get those bouquets. So, yeah, it worked out well, and it was wonderful. I don't know -- just getting to engage with people and having them fall into the flowers as I was kind of hand tying them for them was fun. Going back to that bride aspect of that kind of intimacy of handing someone life, I guess you could say. So it's kind of cool. 

Kelly Perry - 15:58 - Wow. Yeah, that's a beautiful thing to think about. This is just a funny, curious question, but little girls -- did you have many children who came up to the stand? 

Shean Strong - 16:19 - I didn't. But when I was setting up and everything, you're getting stuff like kind of carrying it into J. Crew, people are like, "Oh, my gosh! Those are so beautiful," and all that kind of stuff. They're freaking out over these flowers. And so I had a couple little kids walk by and I would hand them like a little flower or something, obviously with parents' permission, and they loved it. And so getting to kind of connect that way too was really sweet. Watching them walk around like with a little ranunculus and little things like that. That was fun. 

Kelly Perry - 16:43 - That's what melts my heart. I had a bunch of flowers -- well, after we do the workshops up here in the mountains, there are so many flowers. So one day I went and I just set up on a bench in downtown Blowing Rock outside of one of my favorite little stores and I just made bouquets for people to not have them die in my Cooler. And it was so fun because the children -- what I was noticing was that the children would always pick the most beautiful open flower, and the adults who would come by interestingly enough would pick out the ones that were more closed, which was so interesting to me. I don't know if that was just -- that could be just like something that happened to me, but it was--

Shean Strong - 16:43 - No, I'm sure there's something that's to that.  I'm sure.

Kelly Perry - 17:36 - I think that there's this whole thing where it's like, well, if it's closed it will last longer or something. And so then I really got to thinking about children and just kind of their perspective of life, how open-handed they are as people and how welcoming they are and all those kinds of things and how that was sort of reflected in their flower choice. And then with adults, being a little bit more closed, a little bit more guarded with the concept that they would last longer or something.

Shean Strong - 17:36 - There's some psychology there that's going on. Something is happening.

Kelly Perry - 18:11 - I just think it's so interesting. And whenever you think about the floral industry and how the roses have been bred to kind of stay closed in a lot of situations because like the belief that's driving the sales is that they'll stay open longer, which you and I know and so many of the people, those roses, they'll never open.  They are made to never open. And so, of course, you know, we're like, "Give us the variety." 

Kelly Perry - 18:42 - Like the whole reflexing rose thing and I'm just like, "Oh, holy smokes." So I just think it's really interesting. That was just a total, total side note. 

Shean Strong - 18:51 - That's one of those cool things too when you're doing little pop-ups. I'm sure you had experience with that, but you were able to educate people and that's what I love -- to be able to talk to them and kind of debunk some of those misconceptions that people have. Like if you open this rose is going to die.  Well, no, it's going to die if it has bad water or if it's in the sun -- these kind of aspects. So I think having those flowers in front of you and be able to talk with people really kind of educates them and let them kind of open up their eyes a little bit to like, "Oh, yeah, I can have peony for a couple of days and enjoy them. "  So yeah, I don't know -- I'm kind of with you on that. I'm with you. 

Kelly Perry - 19:31 - There's so much more to that floral longevity thing than it's cut out to be. I mean, I'll tell people sometimes if they're like, "Oh, I think I'm doing it right, but the flowers aren't opening," or "This is or that is happening." We all have to remember that the flowers have had a life before they've ever even made it to us and start to learn to see really how to identify a healthy flower and when a flower is kind of past its prime, like paying attention to what the pollen is doing and paying attention to the hydration of the petals and how the petals feel and all those kinds of things can really clue us in on really is it a healthy flower or not.  Because some of those closed flowers that people were picking, "Well, this one will last longer," I can look at the petals and I know that the petals are a little bit more dehydrated or that maybe the roses were picked a day or two before they should have been picked and so they're stunted and they will never open. So if you're listening and you're feeling a little bit confused by that, there is an element to just really observing the flowers that's going to help you become an expert in knowing exactly where it is in the life cycle and how much longer it's got and all those kinds of things. 

Shean Strong - 20:43 - I think the more that you start playing with them too. Like for instance, sometimes I just get like a wild hair and I don't want to drive to my wholesaler, but I'll just go to my local grocery store and just honestly look at the clearance section of what do they have marked out.  And I'm like, I know that these just needed some better water and I know that they're going to perk back up and I just play around with those. And I think that's one of those things, especially if you're interested in flowers, being able to work with them, attending local workshops of designers that you are inspired by and asking questions. I love receiving questions on Instagram -- Where did you get those vase? What kind of flowers? And I love being able to educate and say, "It's this right here...Do this, do this, do this. Let me know how this works out for you." So that's kind of a fun aspect too of getting to work with flowers is you're constantly teaching somebody something and you're learning something from so many people.

Kelly Perry - 20:43 - Financial support for the production of this podcast is brought to you by Team Flowers' Creating Inspired Designs,  a fast-track, online class designed to set you free in your work with flowers. Nurturing creativity in our lives is important. Designing arrangements that our clients will love and we're excited about is important too. If you've ever experienced that tension between what you'd like to create and what your client needs, this class would help. Together, we'll go on a journey of creative expression, explore our personal design philosophies, learn how to break out of creative ruts, and step out and follow the way of perfectionism.  It will cover both client and personal you'll learn some techniques for bridging the gaps between these two types of work. If you're ready to get back to creating from a place of joy and inspiration, you can learn more at teamflower.org/online. 

Kelly Perry - 22:30 - You had mentioned too that you had done some workshops at the....

Shean Strong - 22:30 - Citizen Supply at Ponce, yes.

Kelly Perry - 22:38 - And I think I saw on your website whenever I was just kind of prepping, getting ready for today and learning a little bit more about you through that, that you've got several workshops coming up. Can you just tell us a little bit about who would be the ideal person to come to one of those and where are they. Just tell us a little bit more about this because you're really fun and I would love for people to know that. 

Shean Strong - 22:57 - Wow, I appreciate that. Thank you. I think I'm fun. So thanks. I do a couple of workshops every year. I guess the attendees range from novice, "I have no idea what I'm doing," to "I'm an established designer and I want to learn something different," or "This is a treat myself kind of moment and I want to just do something fun." So I don't ever limit myself to any one, any type of designer -- whether you're going to be doing this for 10+ years or you have no experience. I want everyone to come and enjoy the community and be able to learn something, and honestly teach me some stuff. I've had multiple times where flower care -- I've had some people say, "Hey, if you do it this way...," and I'm like, "Oh, my gosh, thank you so much. That's awesome."  But yeah, we have them in Atlanta. We're working right now. I'm doing some down in Florida. So yeah, that's exciting. But we have roughly around 10-15 attendees. One time we had like 24 people and that was so much. That was too many people. But we did have like 10-15 is a good number. That way I'm able to kind of interact with them, and I do a little demonstration on how I design and give them tips and tricks. And then from there it's just kind of free range and I want -- I don't want my design style to be everyone else's design style. There are influences that other people have and different things that they can pull from to be inspired by. I just want to give them the tips and tricks to kind of make the most aesthetically pleasing arrangement. And that's why my attendees will never have the same arrangement. It's not "Do this like Shean Strong." It's like what inspires you. If you want this rogue ranunculus hanging out on the side, that's your prerogative to do that. I'll kind of modify and say, "Hey, look, this will be prettier on the eye. This settles a little bit easier right here," and then they see it and they capture that moment and it's like, "Yeah, this is what that's about ." It's educating and building that community. 

Kelly Perry - 24:59 - Is there one thing at your workshops or just like a common thing that you see people do that it's just a really simple fix?

Shean Strong - 25:13 - Yeah... It goes hand in hand, I guess I could say. People either don't want to cut the flowers down too low or they want to keep the stems too long. In order to create a beautiful, I guess movement for your eye to follow in an arrangement, especially when you're working with a more natural kind of arrangement, I think being able to play with heights is key. And oftentimes people, they just to cut like half an inch off of a rose and put that somewhere. If you want to do that, that's fine, but maybe if you try doing it this way or try lowering this here or doing something like that, I just think people get apprehensive and nervous, and they either cut way too low or they just cut like nothing at all and they try to make an arrangement with that. I think it's just a matter of being comfortable with the flowers and just kind of knowing how they grow naturally and how they like to work together. So yeah, I think that's the tip. 

Kelly Perry - 26:12 - One of those things with this sort of natural, organic -- like this sort of sculptural shapes, it's surprising like the negative space is just as important as the space that a flower is filling. And it's kind of shocking actually how short you have to cut the stem that goes in at the very base level to be able to allow the space so that there's room for all the flowers to come through. So yeah, if you're listening and you're new and you feel like, "Oh, man,"  or maybe you're used to doing a different style and you're like, "Oh, that organic style, what's the secret with that?"  This right here, I think, is really a key point.  Like sometimes those initial flowers that go in at my base layer after I've maybe branched out a little bit and I'm putting some things in just really low, like the stem might literally be like an inch and a half or two inches long going right into that flower frog that I'm building out and away from. But yeah, that's really interesting.

Shean Strong - 27:30 - I think making sure that you're just not working against the flowers. II try to highlight each bloom for what it is and that's why my arrangements have a shape and kind of a movement to them. I let those flowers go back to that voice that they speak for themselves. There's no need to make them forced into doing something they don't want to do, just kind of let them do their own thing and be happy with it.

Kelly Perry - 27:30 - That's super fun. How did you get into flowers?

Shean Strong - 27:43 - Oh, most random story ever. I feel like a lot of floral designers have just fallen into this career. Like I don't think that anyone was like, "Oh, I'm going to be a flower designer."

Kelly Perry - 27:43 - Yeah, me either.

Shean Strong - 27:54 - So I've always been kind of a creative person and a friend of mine asked me to help with her wedding. And I was like, "Sure. I mean, cool, I can do that, whatever. " And at her wedding I was so nervous. I did not sleep a wink. I was using a lot of hydrangeas and snapchat dragon-

Kelly Perry - 28:13 - Hey, Shean, I'm so sorry to interrupt. Would you mind just starting that story from the beginning?   There's a lot of background noise there to make sure that we've got it all.

Shean Strong - 28:20 - Yeah, for sure, absolutely.  Do you want to ask?

Kelly Perry - 28:25 - Yeah, I'll say it again.  Shean, how did you get started in flowers?

Shean Strong - 28:31 - I think a lot of us -- I mean I fell into flowers honestly. I think a lot of us kind of stumbled into this career. A friend of mine had a wedding and she knew that I was kind of a creative person and she asked me to help with her wedding and I was like, "Yeah, for sure." So I panicked. I made sure that the house was extremely, extremely cold. I didn't want my flowers to die. I was dealing with a bunch of hydrangea.  I had no idea what I was doing. She loved her bouquet. I ended up booking two weddings at that wedding. I think I charged like $100 over the cost of flowers for the next ones because I had no idea what I was doing. I didn't think that I was going to fall in love with this and at the time I was majoring in biochemistry at school and so--

Kelly Perry - 28:31 - Oh, my gosh.  I always love hearing those stories. I'm like, "Hmm, interesting."

Shean Strong - 29:22 - Yeah, complete opposite. I was going to go to the medical field. I was super pumped about that. And then, I fell in love with flowers and I started working with a couple of designers in Atlanta and, you know, trying to educate myself and freelancing when I could and taking different courses and workshops, and that's just kind of how the story has grown. And from there I truly have fallen in love with floral design and kind of creating these events for clients and people . So yeah, that's just kind of how that all started out. 

Kelly Perry - 29:53 - That's super, super cool. Well, do any of your biochemistry background things, do they ever sort of pop out in surprising ways in your work with flowers?

Shean Strong - 30:06 - No.  I mean, I cried a lot while was studying biochem and I cry sometimes that my flowers aren't doing what I want them to do, so maybe that's like a little complaint, a little similarity, but other than that, no. I mean I can measure the pH of water. That's about it.

Kelly Perry - 30:25 - Cool, so fun. Yeah, it's really interesting and even career-changing. Who knows, maybe someday that will come back to you and you'll be a doctor. I mean, who knows? We never know where life's going to take us, but it's interesting when lawyers and we had a dentist at the workshop last year --  there's lawyers, dentists, nurses, so many different backgrounds of people, but I do think there is a similarity of caring for people that's there between all those different professions and even with your desire to want to be a doctor. I feel like there's this element of nurturing--

Shean Strong - 30:25 - Customer service.

Kelly Perry - 31:05 - Yeah, taking care of people. So I think you're a doctor for the soul and for emotion and mental wellness and all of those things now. That's what florists are.

Shean Strong - 31:05 - Absolutely, I like that. 

Kelly Perry - 31:21 - Obviously very different than all of those professions. So I'm not in any way making a really strong correlation, but it really is interesting how flowers can lift somebody who might be feeling sad or any number of other things. They just are a really special thing and it would be actually really cool to sort of partner with doctors in those professions and things like that. 

Shean Strong - 31:49 - It's funny you said that. I was just thinking like how can I be of service, I guess, floral-wise to something like that. So yeah, that's got me kind of thinking. So thank you. Thank you for that. 

Kelly Perry - 31:58 - Yeah, absolutely. Well, it has been super fun to have you here on the podcast today. 

Shean Strong - 31:58 - Absolutely.  Thank you for having me.

Kelly Perry - 32:04 - As we sign off today, I want to remind you that your work with flowers matters. It's about more than the blooms, you're loving the world. You make magic happen. You're creating memories. You're following a dream, delivering light and grace.  Here at Team Flower, we're cheering you on one bloom at a time. Thank you for listening to the podcast and until next time. Remember that we're so thankful for each bucket that you wash and each bag of garbage that you take out of your studio that makes all of this possible. If you're looking for more floral education that's free, conversation, or inspiration, just visit teamflower.org/ to see the library of helpful videos and articles for florists, growers, and flower business owners. You'll find helpful tips on everything from creating flower walls, to hiring bloom mentors, and much, much more.