How to Start Strong: Mentor Session with Ashley Krupp
In this episode of Zimmerman Podcast, I invited Ashley Krupp to the podcast. Ashley is a Business Behind the Blooms (BBB) student who bought BBB in the spring of 2018. Ashley hopped on a one-on-one mentoring call with me and we were about 10 minutes in when I realized I needed to interview her on the podcast! Ashley is sharing about the power of education, finding clarity through imperfect action, and she even asks me some of her biggest business and floral questions. So if you want to be a fly on the wall for a mentoring session, now’s your chance! There’s no doubt in my mind you’re going to love this episode and love Ashley even more. She’s a Team Zimmerman favorite.
Before and after BBB
Ashley booked a mentoring call with me a few months ago, and we immediately clicked! At the time, the team and I were working on batching some podcast episodes, and I told them that we needed to interview Ashley on the podcast! Ashley’s questions reminded me so much of my own early days. Like Ashley, I knew I could run with my business well if I only had the answers for how to best do that.
At this point, Ashley has had BBB for about 1.5 years, but she’s been doing flowers for longer than that. Ashley’s been in floral industry since 2013, and learned things the hard way before BBB. She spent a few years working full time at a flower shop to figure out if she wanted to pursue flowers as a career or hobby. She was able to use her income from her job to invest in herself and her flower education, like BBB!
Ashley shares that BBB was a total game changer for her. The course had all the things she wanted, which was basically someone who had successfully done what she wanted to do and was willing to tell all! To sit down and walk her through how to have a successful floral design business and a full life.
Ashley shares how BBB and the continued education I’ve created like Know Your Numbers has helped her frame her mindset and gave her permission to create a business she actually wants.
Through BBB, she gained freedom to bring her unique skills to flowers because she no longer had to spend so much time and energy worrying about the how-tos of business. When I wrote BBB, I wrote the way I wanted someone to share with me: to give it to me straight. I don’t tell you what to do, but I share exactly how I built my own business and why it works. Then you can implement it in the way it works best for you!
I had a light bulb in my own business when I realized I was in control of my life and my business, and I could make it look however I wanted it to. This business life comes with a lot of hard work, but that’s the entrepreneurial life! Entrepreneurs are willing to do hard things to get what they want most instead of what they want now.
If you don't have confidence in your business, which a lot of creatives don’t, it can be scary and debilitating! When you’re confident in your business, that confidence helps you book brides who trust you as the expert that you are. I love that BBB helps students to have confidence in themselves and their business.
Ashley perfected her sales and booking process with BBB, and since Ashley launched her business in January 2019, she’s maintained a 100% booking rate! She’s booked every single client she wants to work with!
Even though Ashley had experience in the flower industry before BBB, she says that BBB made a night and day difference from her experience in other floral avenues.
Mentoring Q+A
I value my time, so a mentoring session with me can be pricy! That’s why I’m excited to let you into a mentoring session with Ashley. Hopefully when I answer her questions, I’ll answer a few of yours, too!
We talk about how to prioritize what needs to be improved when, how to hire someone ASAP to help with business minutia so you can focus on the tasks only you can do, and how to make consistent change in your business every day.
This Q and A session is like rapid-fire golden nuggets of business wisdom, and you have to listen to them all!.
THINGS LIKE…
Contracts
Websites
SEO
Pinterest
Testimonies
How to create a wedding day schedule that protects you legally
How to be a leader
Building connection in your industry
Planning and thinking like a business owner
Finally, being a business-owner means being receptive to feedback whether it’s positive or negative. It’s all an opportunity to learn and do better!
It’s equally important to listen to feedback from yourself. What’s working for you in your business? What’s not? You can make your business exactly what you want it to be if you’re willing to put in the work!
ONE OF MY BEST PIECES OF ADVICE FOR ENTREPRENEURS: THERE WILL COME A POINT WHEN YOU’LL WANT TO PIVOT, STOP, RETIRE…. BUILD A BUSINESS YOU CAN SELL.
I hope you loved this episode of Zimmerman Podcast. If Ashley’s questions sparked some of your own make sure you go to zimmermanpodcast.com/ask to send in your own questions that I’ll answer on an upcoming episode of Questions with Rachel.
Make sure you check back in for a bonus episode of our miniseries Under the Cover, where I share behind the scenes stories from creating my memoir Sleeping with a Stranger. Thank you for sharing your insights and your time today, Ashley. Until next time.
